A new species from northeastern Mexico, Neominois carmen (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), is described, illustrated, and compared with its only known congener, N. ridingsii. The species is distinguished from the latter by its orange coloration and shape of and pattern on the wings as well as by differences in the genitalia of both sexes.
The Loxicha Region of Oaxaca, Mexico, has been historically important for the study of Nymphalidae, second in the Papilionoidea for species richness. Describing the diversity patterns of this butterfly clade in Loxicha can improve our understanding of the evolutionary history of the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Mexican Pacific slope, and Mexico in general. Objective: To describe the temporal and spatial patterns of Nymphalid diversity along an elevational gradient (80-2 600 m), and to compare Loxicha’s fauna with other regions in Mexico. Methods: We obtained 28 756 records from 21 sites in the Loxicha Region, representing seven years of sampling. We estimate and analyze the diversity, endemism, and distributional patterns for three elevational levels and five vegetation types. We estimated species composition and similarity with other regions of the Pacific and Atlantic slopes. Results: We identified 189 taxa, including species and subspecies, from 85 genera and ten subfamilies of Nymphalidae. Loxicha contains 46 % of the species in the family recognized for Mexico, including ten endemic species and 56 endemic subspecies. Cloud forest and low elevations were the most diverse habitats for this family. There is a clear divergence between the Atlantic and Pacific faunas, and the Sierra Madre del Sur has two faunal components. High-elevation sites in Oaxaca, and in the neighboring state of Guerrero, have a distinctive fauna, apparently isolated from low-elevation sites, revealing an archipelagic distribution for cloud forest Nymphalidae. Conclusions: The Loxicha Region is one of the richest areas for Nymphalidae in Mexico. Distribution on the Pacific slope is determined by geographical history and ecological conditions, including elevation. Nymphalidae can be used to test hypotheses of biogeographic regionalization in Mexico.
Se evaluó el conocimiento sobre la distribución de las Papilionidae y Pieridae mexicanas utilizando 39,300 datos de distribución, que corresponden a 127 especies, 499 cuadrantes y 2325 localidades, analizados a través de una regionalización de cuadrantes de 0.5. El Bosque de Coníferas y Encinos contiene la mayor riqueza de especies, aunque el Bosque Mesófilo de Montaña es el mejor recolectado. La mayoría de las especies bien recolectadas poseen amplia distribución, aunque también están bien recolectadas algunas especies endémicas como Baronia brevicornis y algunas especies de los géneros Enantia, Catasticta y Lieinix. Las áreas mejor recolectadas de México se encuentran en los estados de México, Veracruz, Chiapas, Oaxaca y Guerrero.
Four new riodinid taxa from Mexico are described as follows: Euselasia pontasis sp. nov., Euselasia aurantiacus aurum ssp. nov., Exoplisia azuleja sp. nov., Synargis nymphidioides septentrionalis ssp. nov. The status of Necyria larunda Godman & Salvin, 1885, is reviewed. Habitats and distributional ranges are described for each taxon.
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