Neaspasia karischi Aarvik, new species

(Figs. 7, 23)

Type material. Holotype, ♂, KENYA: Near Nairobi, Olulua Forest, 27.viii.1999, U. Dall’Asta, genitalia slide L. Aarvik 2013.017 (RMCA); Paratype, 1♂, UGANDA, Kabarole District, Kibale National Park, Kanyawara Gate, 1497 m, 0 0o 34,520’N 30o 21,714’E, 28.iii.2012, A.J. Kingston, genitalia slide NHMO 2405 (NHMO).

Description. Male (Fig. 7). Head: Beige, neck tufts brownish black. Antenna brownish black, scape light brown. Labial palpus ca. 1.7 times diameter of eye, beige, externally with brown suffusion, third segment drooping. Thorax: Brownish black. Legs pale beige, fore and mid-legs with greyish brown suffusion forming rings on tarsi; hind tibia pencil pale ochreous. Wingspan 15.0 mm. Forewing upperside with basal third blackish brown, distal two thirds beige, distal third suffused with grey and brown. Cilia dark grey. Hindwing dark brownish grey. Abdomen: Grey. Genitalia (Fig. 23) with uncus gradually tapering towards tip; neck of valva rather broad, ventral lobe of cucullus with conspicuous tooth, with one additional strong tooth along ventral edge (though the latter is lacking in left valva of holotype), group of spines between caudal edge of sacculus and basal excavation not reaching middle of sacculus, situated relatively distant from convex ventral edge of sacculus; phallus slender, evenly curved, gradually narrowed distally.

Female. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Neaspasia karischi resembles N. orthacta, but males of N. karischi differ externally by the darker hindwing. In the male genitalia of N. karischi the neck of the valva is broader, and the group of spines on the sacculus is situated more dorsally than in N. orthacta.

Distribution. The species is known from Kenya and Uganda.

Ecology. The habitat is forest.

Etymology. This species name is a patronym for Timm Karisch, Dessau, Germany, for his contribution to the knowledge of African Lepidoptera, and to acknowledge his fruitful cooperation with the authors.