Xenovena Marín & Nakahara, 2023

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 : 30-64

Xenovena Marín & Nakahara , genus novum.

Type species — Magneuptychia murrayae Brévignon, 2005 , by present designation.

Zoobank registration: https://zoobank.org/Nomenclatural Acts/A165ADDA-88EC-4401-8DFD-D8B11C63F124

Systematic placement and diagnosis. The monotypic genus Xenovena gen.n. is a member of the so-called ‘ Pareuptychia clade’, and strongly supported as belonging to a clade including the genera Pareuptychia , Euptychoides , ‘ Erichthodes ’, Neonympha , Megeuptychia and Satyrotaygetis ( Figure 9 , SH-aLRT 100, UFB 98). Xenovena gen.n. is easily distinguished from all other known euptychiine taxa by its partially fused hindwing veins Rs and M 1, resulting in these two veins sharing the same origin, as shown in Figure 23a . Furthermore, both the forewing and hindwing of Xenovena gen.n. are somewhat elongated compared with many other euptychiine species ( Figure 23 ). The female abdomen of Xenovena gen.n. possesses a patch of modified scales on both sides of the seventh abdominal segment ( Figure 24f ), in addition to the signa being absent ( Figure 23h ), both unusual features for the subtribe. In particular, the patch of modified scales apparently tightly attached to the abdomen at this location is not known in any other euptychiine species. The absence of signa is also a rare character state, although it is known to occur in a few euptychiine species (Nakahara, Llorente-Bousquets, et al., 2015). Phenotypically, Xenovena gen.n. resembles evolutionary distantly related taxa such as species in the genus Hermeuptychia Forster, 1964 , but the aforementioned characters distinguish this taxon from any other externally similar euptychiine species.

Etymology. The generic name Xenovena is a combination of the Greek word ‘xenos’ (meaning ‘strange’) combined with the Latin word ‘vena’ (meaning ‘vein’), in reference to the strange hindwing venation. The generic name should be regarded as a feminine noun in the nominative singular.

Description ( Figures 23 and 24 ). Some notable characters include: eyes setose; pterothoracic tibia with two principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally, in addition to some spines dorsally, pair of spurs of similar length at distal end of tibia, first tarsomere with three principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally until distal end, distal end of first tarsomere and remaining tarsomeres with four principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally. Medium-sized Euptychiina (FW length typically 20 – 21 mm), male HW somewhat elongate, hindwing veins Rs and M 1 partially fused, thus sharing same origin and branching off close to wing margin. No strong sexual dimorphism in wing pattern: VFW with five submarginal ocelli in cells Rs, M 1, M 2, M 3 and Cu 1, otherwise wing pattern and shape as illustrated ( Figure 23 ). Male with eighth tergite a narrow strip at basal side of eighth abdominal segment, broad weakly sclerotized patch absent, male 8th sternite present as two sclerotized patches; uncus and brachia short; costa rather reduced in lateral view; cornuti present, otherwise genitalia as illustrated ( Figure 24 ). Female with abdomen bearing a patch of modified scales on either sides of seventh abdominal segment; intersegmental membrane of seventh and eighth abdominal segment pleated, folded but expandable, no visible weakly sclerotized region; lamella antevaginalis appearing as rounded, ‘thumb-like’ small plate apparently not fused with lateral plates of eighth abdominal segment, as illustrated ( Figure 24 ); ductus bursae somewhat broad and membranous; corpus bursae small, signa absent.

Xenovena Marín & Nakahara , gen.n.

murrayae ( Brévignon, 2005) , comb.n., was Magneuptychia [ Brévignon (2005, Lambillionea, 105(3)(1): 393-404)]

Figures

FIGURE 9 Phylogeny of the ’Pareuptychia clade’ based on the FULL dataset. Interpretation of support values can be found in the legend. The scale bars under the butterfly images equal 1 cm.

FIGURE 23 Xenovena murryae comb.n. (a) male wing venation; (b and c) male dorsal (b) and ventral (c); (d and e) female dorsal (d) and ventral (e). Scale bars 1 cm.

FIGURE 24 Xenovena murrayae comb.n. (a–e) male genitalia, lateral (a), dorsal (b), anterior view (c), aedeagus lateral (d) and aedeagus dorsal (e); (f–h) female genitalia, lateral view exterior tip abdomen (f), ventral view exterior tip abdomen (g), dorsal view interior abdomen (h). Scale bars 1 mm.