Camerunia Aurivillius, 1893

Takano, Hitoshi, 2025, Taxonomic revision of Camerunia Aurivillius, 1893 and allied genera (Lepidoptera: Eupterotidae: Janinae), European Journal of Taxonomy 1022, pp. 134-175 : 137-139

Genus Camerunia Aurivillius, 1893

Camerunia Aurivillius, 1893: 211 . Type species: Camerunia insignis Aurivillius, 1893 , by monotypy.

Hemijana Aurivillius 1901b: 21 . Syn. nov. Type species: Jana subrosea Aurivillius, 1893 , by monotypy. Catajana Strand 1910: 98 . Syn. nov. Type species: Dreata bimaculata Dewitz, 1879 , by original designation.

Camerunia – Aurivillius 1901b: 27; 1904: 698. — Gaede 1927: 306. — Forbes 1955: 94, 129. — Fletcher & Nye 1982: 29. — Vári et al. 2002: 150. — Nässig & Oberprieler 2008: 56. — Kitching et al. 2018: suppl. material 1.

Hemijana – Gaede 1927: 302. — Forbes 1955: 94, 129. — Fletcher & Nye 1982: 75. — Vári et al. 2002: 150. — Nässig & Oberprieler 2008: 56. — Kitching et al. 2018: suppl. material 1.

Catajana – Gaede 1927: 306. — Forbes 1955: 129 (as synonym of Hemijana ). — Fletcher & Nye 1982: 32. — Vári et al. 2002: 150. — Nässig & Oberprieler 2008: 56. — Kitching et al. 2018: suppl. material 1.

Diagnosis

Camerunia species are medium- to large-sized, brightly-coloured, highly distinctive monkey moths with broad, papery wings and, compared to other Janinae , have a proportionally small body. There is a superficial resemblance to the peculiar genus Hibrildes , which, unlike Camerunia , displays a high degree of sexual dimorphism ( Poulton 1929). Male Hibrildes have almost translucent wings with markings mostly limited to densely packed dark brown scales along well-defined veins. The females, in contrast, are well-marked and polymorphic, displaying aposematic colouration that varies from pale yellow through to orange, with a dark discal bar-like marking present on both pairs of wings. The male genital morphology of the two genera is, however, very different; those of Hibrildes are highly modified with lateral processes on the uncus and tripartite valves ( Minet 1994; Oberprieler et al. 2003).

Redescription of the adult

Antenna bipectinate in both sexes, rami shorter in females of some species. Ground colour of body and forewing varying from white, through yellow to brown; hindwing white, yellow or pink. Forewing triangular, rounded at apex and outer margin gently arcuate; hindwing ovoid, outer margin arcuate. Both wings often with transverse fasciae; forewing may display basal and discal markings. Vein CuP of the forewing present and highlighted with brown scaling in some species.

MALE GENITALIA. Uncus reduced, fused with tegumen. Tegumen broad with a pair of long apically rounded lateral projections. Gnathos with spinose or clavate process. Valve trapezoidal or triangular with well-defined costa and sacculus, cleft in some species. Juxta trapezoid, emarginate distally. Vinculum V-shaped. Saccus cylindrical, rounded at apex. Phallus as long as valve, slightly curved medially; carina scobinate in some species; coecum rounded. Vesica with scobination.

Molecular characterisation

The barcode region of Camerunia species was variable with intraspecific pairwise distances (PWD) for the five sampled taxa ranging from 0.0–5.8%, while interspecific PWDs were 6.0–13.1%. They diverged from the outgroup taxon Hibrildes by 13.6–16.5%. Aside from C. subrosea ( Aurivillius, 1893) comb. nov. and C. smithi sp. nov., each of the remaining species was assigned numerous Barcode Index Numbers (BIN) in BOLD as a result of the large intraspecific divergences. Although the BINs in general showed geographical concordance, no differences in habitus or genital morphology were observed in the individuals assigned to each BIN, and thus any further taxonomic splitting (which would ultimately be based solely on barcodes) could not be justified.

Distribution

Members of this genus are widely distributed from north-eastern South Africa as far north as Uganda and westwards to Sierra Leone and Guinea. With the exception of C. orphne and C. smithi sp. nov., which inhabit forested environments, all other species are found in open woodland and forest-savanna mosaics.

Descriptions of the species

Due to incomplete taxon sampling in the phylogeny, the species are presented below based on the configurations of the male genitalia. The genus naturally divides into two groups, one with flattened lateral processes of the tegumen ( C. orphne , C. flava and C. albida ) and another with cylindrical processes ( C. smithi sp. nov., C. bimaculata ( Dewitz, 1879) comb. rev. and C. subrosea ( Aurivillius, 1893) comb. nov.).