Daedalma inconspicua blancae Pyrcz, 2011

Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Greeney, Harold F., Willmott, Keith R. & Wojtusiak, Janusz, 2011, 2898, Zootaxa 2898, pp. 1-68 : 32-33

Daedalma inconspicua blancae Pyrcz , n. ssp.

( Figs. 5A, 11C)

Material examined: ECUADOR: HOLOTYPE male: Bolívar , Balzapamba, Río Alcacer (above Santa Lucía, old Guaranda road), 2700 m, 04.XI.1996, S. Attal leg., red, rectangular label saying : Holotype, MZUJ; 3 males : same data as HT, TWP (1 male to be deposited in MECN) .

Description: MALE ( Fig. 5A): Head, thorax and abdomen: not differing from nominate subspecies. Wings: FW length: 24.5–27 mm, mean: 25.9 mm n=4. FWD pale brown, with a yellowish overcast somewhat more noticeable along costa; faint, dark brown rounded submarginal spots in M1-M2 and Cu1-Cu2. HWD medium brown, slightly darker than on FW; barely noticeable (in some individuals indistinct) rounded dark brown submarginal spots from M1-M2 to Cu1-Cu2; some red-orange submarginal scaling from Rs-M1 to Cu1-Cu2. FWV grey brown; a wide, lighter pale brown band in postmedian to submarginal area extending from costa to anal margin near tornus, connected to a short transversal discal band of same colour, enclosing faint blackish brown rounded submarginal spots, including two small blackish brown subapical ocelli in R5-M1, M1-M2 pupilled with white; diffuse chocolate brown patches at apex and on outer margin in M1-M2; outer margin from apex to M3 yellowish olive green. HWV covered with an almost nondescript pattern of blackish, chocolate brown, chestnut, rusty-brown and milky white patches and lines; a series of submarginal ocelli pupilled with white and a roughly triangular whitish submarginal patch contiguous to vein M3. Genitalia ( Fig. 11C): Uncus stout, slightly arched, about same length as shoul- der of tegumen; gnathos over half length of uncus; saccus wide and deep; valvae elongate, gradually narrowing towards apex, ampulla smooth, a prominent apical spine-like process; aedeagus slightly longer than valvae, gently bent in middle, smooth.

FEMALE: Unknown.

Etymology: This subspecies is dedicated to Blanca Huertas, a Colombian entomologist and currently the curator of butterflies at the Natural History Museum in London.

Remarks: This subspecies is known to occur on the western slopes of Volcán Chimborazo. Although admittedly morphologically barely distinguishable from the nominate subspecies, it is attributed a separate subspecific status for biogeographical reasons explained under nominate D. inconspicua . It is not the only case among Ecuadorian Pronophilina satyrines with such a distributional pattern, where two morphologically nearly identical subspecies are geographically separated by a third subspecies. Notably, Lymanopoda nivea Staudinger has three subspecies in the Western Cordillera: L. nivea bingo Pyrcz occurs in Bolívar and Cotopaxi provinces, a phenotypically similar undescribed subspecies (Pyrcz, m/s) occurs in Imbabura, and the nominate subspecies, with markedly different wing colour pattern, occurs in between, in Pichincha.