Amerila androfusca (Pinhey)
30 androfusca m.JPG (7251 Byte) 34 androfusca w.JPG (7002 Byte) androfusca m 94-0014.JPG (5758 Byte) androfusca f 94-0017 Kopie.JPG (4721 Byte)
male female male female
Description
Male. Fw length 24-26 mm; fw dorsally creamy white, all veins finely lined with dark scales, a broader dark streak along the discal vein, and a faint dark line in the postdiscal area running from the subcosta to the media in a slight angle towards the outer margin; hw dorsally dark fuscous brown, costal and outer margin creamy white; fw ventrally cream-coloured, central area dark brown; hw ventrally dark brown near the inner margin and medial area, fading to dark ivory towards the outer and costal margins. Head, thorax, and outer sides of femora and tibiae ivory, the tarsi yellowish brown; inner sides of femora, tibiae, and tarsi yellow; tegulae with a weak black basal spot fading posteriorly into a thin line. Abdomen dorsally dark fuscous brown, ventrally creamy white; in the membraneous area between segment viii and the genital apparatus dorso-laterally on both sides with a large, brush-like androconial organs of long, dark, hair-like scales.
Female. Fw dorsally, head, and thorax as in ¢; hw dorsally creamy white, weakly scaled; fw and hw ventrally whitish cream-coloured, without any dark brown scales; abdomen dorsally creamy white at the base, pale yellow from segment III towards the tip, ventrally all segments white.
Male genitalia
androfusca a.gif (2718 Byte) androfusca b.gif (6133 Byte) androfusca c.gif (1968 Byte) androfusca d.gif (7384 Byte)
view on leftside of vinculum and valva, lateral view inner side of right valva tegumen/uncus, dorsal view aedeagus with vesica everted
Uncus small and short, triangular with a blunt tip. Valvae large, oval-shaped, distally rounded; outer surface with long, extrusible, hirsute, tube-like coremata; inner sclerotized process short and smooth, slightly curved. Vesica distally with two large, straight, parallel cornuti of slightly unequal length fused at their base, and two plate-like sclerotizations.
Distribution
East Africa; central Kenya, northeastern Tanzania.
Comments
The male of this species are very distinct and cannot be confused easily with any other African Amerila species. The female,, however, are similar to A. lineolata, but are larger and have uniformly white hw.
Material
Rhodogastria androfusca Pinhey, 1952: 176. Holotype male (examined): Kenya, Nairobi, 1937 (bred), R.N.H. Simmons / Brit.Mus. 1953-293 / Holotype Rhodogastria androfusca Pnh. male / Type [BMNH]; note: The metathorax with the hw together with the abdomen of the specimen were apparently once broken off; the abdomen, however, has been glued back onto the specimen upside down. Type locality: KENYA: Nairobi.
Additional material examined. KENYA: Nairobi, vi.1918 (1 male, BMNH), 1951 (1 male, 1 female BMNH), ii.1957 (1 female, NMKE); Nairobi: Ngong, xii.1953 (1 male, NMKE); Kabete, 3.iii.1972 (1 male, ZSSM), 29.x.1972 (1 male, ZSSM), 24.-27.xii.1972 (5 males, ZSSM), 3.i.1973 (1 male, ZSSM), 6.iv.1973 (1 male, ZSSM); Nyari, Treetops, viii.1970 (1 male, NMKE); TANZANIA: Tanga: Mal.Inst. Amani, iii.1962 (2 males, BMNH, NMBZ), E. Usambara, Amani, xi.1965 (1 male, NMKE).