Daedalma adamsi d’Abrera

Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Greeney, Harold F., Willmott, Keith R. & Wojtusiak, Janusz, 2011, 2898, Zootaxa 2898, pp. 1-68 : 25

Daedalma adamsi d’Abrera

( Figs. 4E, 12F)

Daedalma adamsi d’Abrera, 1988: 844 , 845.

Remarks: This monotypic Peruvian species is similarly patterned to the Ecuadorian D. eliza , both bearing a faint brick red FW median patch. Its highly distinctive male genitalia, however, separate it from congeners.

Material examined: PERU: HOLOTYPE male: Huánuco, Río Palcazu, W. Hoffmanns, Rothschild Bequest B.M 1939-1, BMNH; 3 males: same data as the holotype, BMNH; 1 male: SO Peru, 1908, Staudinger & Bang- Haas , (prep. genit. TWP-06 / 25.05.2008), SMTD, 2 males: Pasco, P. N. Yanachaga-Chemillén, San Alberto, ca. Abra Esperanza, 2814 m, 14.V.2008, J. Grados, S. Carbonal, C. Calderón leg., MUSM.

Redescription: MALE ( Fig. 4E): Head: eyes chocolate brown, palpi two and a half times length of head, covered with chocolate brown hair; antennae slender, club formed gradually, slightly thicker than shaft, dark brown dorsally, orange brown ventrally. Thorax: dorsally and ventrally blackish brown. Abdomen: dorsally blackish brown, laterally and ventrally lighter dull brown. Wings: forewing outer margin slightly truncated below apex, produced at vein M1. Hindwing forming two prominent tail-like extensions along veins Cu1 and Cu2. FWD fuscous brown, lustrous, a faint crimson red roughly oval submarginal patch in cell M3-Cu1. HWD fuscous brown, lighter brown along costa. FWV olive brown, a lighter, faint diffused subapical patch extending from costa to cell M2-M3, apical area suffused with chocolate brown and magenta scales, three minute subapical dark brown dots in R4-R5, R5-M1 and M1-M2, a dirty yellow shade in cell Cu1-Cu2 and along outer margin. HWV ground colour dark chocolate brown with a complex marble-like pattern composed of blackish and milky white scales, not differing from other species of genus, with two prominent submarginal milky white roughly triangular patches in cells M2-M3 and M3-Cu1, plus two similar small patches in cell Cu1-Cu2. Genitalia ( Fig. 12F): Tegumen with an irregular, dorsal surface and basal side deeply curved basally, in this respect very reminiscent of genus Apexacuta Pyrcz ; gnathos long, nearly as long as uncus; saccus relatively shallow; tip of valvae not in apical position but displaced basally.

FEMALE: Unknown.

Remarks: Daedalma adamsi was described from specimens presumably collected by Hoffmanns in Palcazu, north of Oxapampa in central Peru (Pasco). It was known until recently only from the holotype and three other specimens from the same locality (not designated as paratypes by d’Abrera). During our research a male of D. adamsi was located in the Staudinger collection in Dresden (SMTD), collected in 1908, apparently earlier than the type, and labelled as from "SE Peru ". Even though the area of Oxapampa in Central Peru and several localities in southern Peru have been rather well sampled in recent years by the senior author and other lepidopterists (Boyer, Grados, Wojtusiak, Bottger), few additional specimens have been obtained, suggesting that D. adamsi may be very local or highly seasonal. A population of D. adamsi was very recently discovered (2008), in the Yanachaga-Chemillén National Park, near the presumed type locality. The elevation at which the two individuals were collected indicate that D. adamsi is an upper cloud forest species. The phyletic affinities of D. adamsi are unclear, with the male genitalia showing some unusual characters in comparison with other species of the “ dinias group”, as described above. The colour pattern suggests that it is related to the northern allopatric D. fraudata , particularly that of the HWV, and the size and placement of the FWD patch, which in the case of D. adamsi is crimson and faint. The species also resembles D. eliza from northern Ecuador (see under that species). The male genitalia of D. adamsi are, however, unlike any other superficially similar congener. Daedalma adamsi may replace D. boliviana parapatrically at lower elevations, though the two species have yet to be collected along the same elevational transect.