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Issue: Vol. 5249 No. 4: 3 Mar. 2023
Type: Article
Published: 2023-03-03
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5249.4.4
Page range: 465-476
Abstract views: 296
PDF downloaded: 38

A new species in the genus Precis Hübner, [1819] (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae), another surprising discovery in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea and the broader Guinea Highlands in West Africa

Hungarian Natural Heritage Trust, H-9945 Fő út 57 Kercaszomor, Hungary.
Nature Education Centre, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 5, 30–387 Kraków, Poland
African Natural History Research Trust, Kingsland, Leominster, HR6 9QA, UK
Precis koivoguii sp. n. Junoniini genitalia morphology seasonal variation Liberian subregion endemism Lepidoptera

Abstract

A new species in the genus Precis (Papilionoidea, Nymphalidae, Nymphalinae), described in this paper as P. koivoguii sp. n., was discovered in the Nimba Mountains, Guinea, West Africa, and specimens were also identified from the neighbouring mountainous area in Ivory Coast in the broader Guinea Highlands. In appearance the species is similar to some wet season forms of the widely distributed P. pelarga and the Madagascan P. andremiaja, but in size and wingshape, it also resembles P. ceryne, and could have been a natural hybrid between this latter species and P. pelarga. The specific distinction from these taxa was confirmed by marked differences in male genitalia and constant phenotypic characteristics. Based on the type series, it was thought that the new species might be endemic to mid- and high-altitude habitats, particularly forest-scrub-grassland edges or wetlands in the broader Guinea Highlands but a new photographic record from western Ghana suggests a much wider distribution in suitable habitats of the Upper Guinean forest zone.

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