Taxonomic notes on Papilio ocypete Fabricius, 1776 and Papilio helle Cramer, 1779 with description of two new similar species from South America (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae)

Abstract

The discovery of a new species of satyrine butterfly, Magneuptychia louisammour Benmesbah & Zacca, sp. n., that is phenotypically similar to a sympatric species widely known as Magneuptychia ocypete (Fabricius, 1776), led to a review of the taxonomic status of M. ocypete. A neotype for Papilio ocypete Fabricius, 1776 is designated and its redescription is provided. Neonympha sabina C. Felder & R. Felder, 1867 and Euptychia helle var. olivacea Aurivillius, 1929 are treated as junior subjective synonyms of P. ocypete and a lectotype is designated for each name. A neotype for the preoccupied name Papilio helle Cramer, 1779, and its replacement name Magneuptychia fugitiva Lamas, [1997], is also designated, and a redescription of this name and discussion of its taxonomic status are provided. We describe an additional phenotypically similar species, Magneuptychia kamel Benmesbah & Zacca, sp. n. from the western Amazon and raise the name Magneuptychia opima sheba Brévignon & Benmesbah, 2012 to species rank (stat. rev.) on the basis of morphological and DNA sequence evidence. We also discuss the difficulties regarding taxonomic and geographical delimitation in these complex species groups. Observations on Euptychiina behaviour are also provided. Finally, based on external characters and male genitalia, a proposed preliminary arrangement of two species groups is proposed, including other species of Magneuptychia Forster, 1964 and Cissia Doubleday, 1848.

A new genus in the diverse Andean Pedaliodes complex uncovered using target enrichment (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)

“…Molecular data have also provided new insights into the phylogeny of the extremely diverse group of Neotropical butterflies, the Euptychiina (Satyrinae) (Espeland et al, 2019), supporting the description of a surprisingly large number of new genera as a result of integrative taxonomy (Barbosa et al, 2015;Freitas et al, 2015;Nakahara et al, 2015Nakahara et al, , 2018Nakahara et al, , 2019Benmesbah et al, 2018). These advances have yet to be mirrored to the same extent in the montane ally of the Euptychiina, the equally diverse subtribe Pronophilina, for two reasons.…”

Combining target enrichment and Sanger sequencing data to clarify the systematics of the diverse Neotropical butterfly subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

“…and M. kamel comb.n. were placed in Magneuptychia (Benmesbah et al, 2018;Lamas, 2004). As discussed by Zacca, Casagrande, et al (2018), most species placed in Cissia prior to that paper were presumably considered to be related because of their possession of a yellowish patch on the VFW, but that character is clearly homoplasious, and the Cissia of Lamas (2004)…”

“…are now placed in six genera in two clades: Cissia, Vanima, Megisto, Modica, Paryphthimoides, and Vareuptychia Benmesbah et al (2018). noted that M. myncea comb.n., M. maripa comb.n., M. fugitiva and M. kamel comb.n.…”

A revision of the new genus Amiga Nakahara, Willmott & Espeland, gen. n., described for Papilio arnaca Fabricius, 1776 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

“…The specimen in Glasgow is missing its head and abdomen, in addition to having worn and faded wings, thus somewhat obscuring its true identity. Given this situation, combined with the fact that no authentic Schulze specimens appear to be in existence (e.g., Benmesbah et al 2018), in addition to the explanation above, we therefore designate a male specimen from Suriname (type locality) as a neotype for P.arnaca following Article 75.3 of the ICZN (1999) ( neotype designation ): //Suriname Brokopondo Brownsberg, rainforest km 6-12, 30.1.1982, Olle Pellmyr // USNMENT 00913953// (USNM). (Fig.…”