Mirocossus chukovskyi Yakovlev sp. n. (Figs 1-2)

Material Holotype (Fig. 1) 1 (&&), Fernando Póo, W. Cooper. BM 1926-337. Individual number NHMUK: 012832476, slide NHMUK: 010315507 (NHMUK).

Description: Male. Length of fore wing 15 mm. Antenna bipectinate, setae processes three times longer than antenna rod diameter. Fore wing apically acute, light brown at root, transverse dark-brown strokes on border between discal and postdiscal areas, wide light-grey portion postdiscally and submarginally, with thin grey wavy bands on light background. Hind wing brown with poorly noticeable transverse dark-brown strokes.

Male genitalia (Fig. 2): Uncus triangular, thin, apically strongly sclerotized; gnathos arms short, thick; gnathos large, covered with tiny spikes; valve wide, apically slightly narrowing, with toothed comb on costal margin of valve in distal third, apex membranous, semicircular (membranous part about 1/6 of valve in length); transtilla process hook-like, long, apically acute; juxta large with wide lobe-like lateral processes, diverged at blunt angle; saccus robust, semicircular; phallus equal to valve in length, thick, slightly curved in medium third, vesica aperture in dorso-apical position, in length about 1/3 of phallus, vesica without cornuti.

Female unknown.

Diagnosis: Externally, the new species is most close to M. haritonovi Yakovlev, 2011 (type locality - Uganda, Fort Portal) and M. mordkovitchi Yakovlev, 2011 (type locality - “Ost Nigeria, Obudu Kattle Ranch”) from which it differs in a series of characters: - in M. haritonovi Yakovlev, 2011 (YAKOVLEV, 2011: fig. 12) the valve is significantly more narrower, the comb on the costal margin of the valve is more expressed, the phallus is poorly extended apically; - in M. mordkovitchi Yakovlev, 2011 (YAKOVLEV, 2011: fig. 15) the saccus is slightly smaller, the phallus is slightly longer than valve.

Distribution: Equatorial Guinea (Bioko Island).

Etymology: The new species is named after the famous Russian children’s poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator Korney I. Chukovsky (1882-1969). In one of his most popular children’s poems, “Doktor Aybolit [Dr. Ouch, [it] hurts!]” there are lines “We live in Zanzibar, In the Kalahari and the Sahara, On Mount Fernando Po, Where Hippo Po walks Along the wide Limpopo”, reading which for the first time, the author of the article (at the age of five) became interested in the geography and nature of Africa, to the study of which he later devoted his life.

Discussion: The new species is an endemic of the Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests Ecoregion. In the recent years, the new species Gumilevia timora Yakovlev, 2011 was described from Bioko Island, and the new genus and species Geraldocossus durrelli Yakovlev & Sáfián, 2016 - from Mount Cameroon (YAKOVLEV, 2011; YAKOVLEV & SÁFIÁN, 2016). Currently, the lepidopteran biodiversity of this ecoregion is being actively studied, numerous new taxa have been described (HERBULOT, 1999; PRZYBYŁOWICZ, 2013; SÁFIÁN & TROPEK, 2016; PRZYBYŁOWICZ et al., 2019; SÁFIÁN et al., 2019; PARK & KARISH, 2021), for certain groups, the faunal lists have been published (SPEARMAN et al., 2000; KARISCH, 2001). It is extremely interesting that the center of species diversity of the family Alucitidae was found on Cameroon Mount (USTJUZHANIN et al., 2018, 2020), where our colleagues discovered over a quarter of Alucitidae species richness in Africa, wherein 16 (!) species of 22 are endemics. All the species were traditionally described in the genus Alucita Linnaeus, 1758 (type species: Alucita hexadactyla Linnaeus, 1758), but it is obvious that the species A. longipenis Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018 with its extremely long worm-like aedeagus, A. bokwango Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2020 with its long acicular uncus and the clavately extended apices of the valves; A. ludmila Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018 with pronounced pubescence, the special pattern on the wings and the triangular valves, and the group of species with completely reduced valves (A. fokami Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018, A. janeceki Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2018, A. zuza Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2020, A. deja Ustjuzhanin & Kovtunovich, 2020) sharply differ morphologically from the typical European and Asian Alucita, Probably, they represent the genera new to science, also endemic for Mount Cameroon. Wherein, no endemic species of Alucitidae are known from Bioko. Thus, we now know significant differences in the fauna of Lepidoptera on the continental and insular parts of the Mount Cameroon and Bioko montane forests Ecoregion. Further study of the entomofauna (primarily, of the endemic taxa) of this richest region will raise the question of dividing the ecoregion into two parts: continental and insular.

Figures 1-2.–
1.Mirocossus chukovskyi Yakovlev sp. n. - holotype, adult male, Cote d’Ivoire, Marahoué Region, individual number NHMUK: 012832476 (NHMUK). 2.Mirocossus chukovskyi Yakovlev sp. n. - holotype, male genitalia (slide NHMUK: 010315507).