Xenovena murrayae ( Brévignon, 2005 )

Espeland, Marianne, Nakahara, Shinichi, Zacca, Thamara, Barbosa, Eduardo P., Huertas, Blanca, Marín, Mario A., Lamas, Gerardo, Benmesbah, Mohamed, Brévignon, Christian, Casagrande, Mirna M., Fåhraeus, Christer, Grishin, Nick, Kawahara, Akito Y., Mielke, Olaf H. H., Miller, Jacqueline Y., Nakamura, Ichiro, Navas, Vanessa, Patrusky, Brooke, Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Richards, Lindsay, Tan, Denise, Tyler, Stephanie, Viloria, Angel, Warren, Andrew D., Xiao, Lei, Freitas, André V. L. & Willmott, Keith R., 2023, Combining target enrichment and Sanger sequencing data to clarify the systematics of the diverse Neotropical butterfly subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae), Zoological Research 2023, pp. 1-73 : 32-70

Xenovena murrayae ( Brévignon, 2005) combinatio nova.

Magneuptychia murrayae Brévignon (2005, pp. 394 – 395) . TL: PK8 D5, Montsinéry, French Guiana.

Types: HT male ( LBCB) (figured in Brévignon [2005, figures 15 and16], examined); AT female ( LBCB) (figured in Brévignon [2005, figures 17 and18], examined); PT males and females ( LBCB) (examined).

Taxonomy. Magneuptychia murrayae was described by Brévignon (2005) based on four males and two females, including the male holotype, all from French Guiana. The male holotype examined by us and also illustrated in the original description (figures 15 and16) leaves no doubt as to its identity.

Distribution and natural history ( Figure 25 ). Xenovena murrayae- comb.n. is known to date from a handful of sites in the south-western Amazon basin and French Guiana. According to Brévignon (2005), the species was recorded in French Guiana in the shady and humid understory of semi-marshy forest, from the morning to the end of the afternoon (17:00 hrs). Benmesbah (pers. obs.) found the species to be very localized in French Guiana, occurring only in small areas a few metres wide, but nevertheless being sometimes abundant in those areas. On several occasions, pairs of individuals of undetermined sex were observed flying together, spiralling upwards and downwards and making a crackling sound audible from 4 to 5 m away, similar to that of Hamadryas Hübner, 1806 butterflies ( Nymphalidae : Biblidinae) but much quieter. The mechanism by which such sounds are produced remains to be investigated. The immature stages and hostplants have not been described. A list of specimens examined is provided in Appendix B.

Discussion. Xenovena gen.n. is established for Magneuptychia murrayae based primarily on molecular data, but this hypothesis is also supported by its distinctive morphological features, as documented above. Our molecular data presented herein, coupled with previous phylogenetic analyses, clearly shows that the type species of Magneuptychia , Papilio libye , is a distantly related taxon recovered as a member of the ‘ Splendeuptychia clade’ ( Espeland et al., 2019a). Thus, the question is whether to describe another monotypic euptychiine genus for Magneuptychia murrayae , or include M. murrayae in a large genus that accommodates species in Pareuptychia , Euptychoides , Megeuptychia and other genera. As discussed in the relevant section of other monotypic genera described here, we believe that such a broader classification should not be adopted. For example, Pareuptychia is a morphologically compact genus with unique male genitalic features (Nakahara, Marin, & Neild, 2016), and classifying M. murrayae and other species in Pareuptychia would result in an unreasonable taxonomic hypothesis given the current generic classification of euptychiines.

Xenovena murrayae

BRAZIL: Acre: Reserva Extrativista Alto Juruá, Marechal Thaumaturgo, Foz do Rio Breu , [9°24'35''S, 72°42'58''W], 200-300 m, (Brown, K. S., Freitas, A. V. L.), Oct 1997, 1 ♁, ( ZUEC). FRENCH GUIANA: Cayenne: Matoury , [4°50'N, 52°21'W], 6 m, (Brévignon, L. & C.), 21 May 1990, 1 ♀ [Collection L & C Brévignon No. 50], ( LBCB); Montsinéry PK15 D5 [= point kilometrique 15 on D5] , [4°50'22''N, 52°30' 52''W], (Brévignon, L. & C.), 14 Jul 1996, 1 ♁ [Collection L & C Brévignon No. 611], ( LBCB), 15 Mar 1991, 1 ♁ [ Collection L & C Brévignon No. 442], ( LBCB), 17 Mar 1991, 1 ♀ [ Collection L & C Brévignon No. 441], ( LBCB), 4 Dec 2007, 1 ♁; Montsinéry PK8 D5 [= point kilometrique 8 on D5] , [4°48'14''N, 52°28' 38''W], (Brévignon, L. & C.), 31 Oct 1995, 1 ♁ [Collection L & C Brévignon No. 612], ( LBCB), 6 May 1990, 1 ♁ [Collection L & C Brévignon No. 49], ( LBCB). PERU: Madre de Dios: Quebrada Agua Negra , [12°53'S, 69°17'W], 200 m, (Rich, C.), 24 Aug 1995, 1 ♁ [ MUSM-LEP-103303 ], ( MUSM).

Figures

FIGURE 25 Xenovena murrayae comb.n. Locality records.