Daedalma drusilla drusilla Hewitson

Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Greeney, Harold F., Willmott, Keith R. & Wojtusiak, Janusz, 2011, 2898, Zootaxa 2898, pp. 1-68 : 27-29

Daedalma drusilla drusilla Hewitson

( Figs. 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, 10C, 10D, 16A)

Daedalma drusilla Hewitson, 1858: 86 , pl. 1, fig. 7; Adams, 1986: 253; Pyrcz, 1999a: 228; Pyrcz & Viloria, 2007: 29.

Daedalma dora Staudinger, 1897: 138 , pl. 5, fig. 7, ( Colombia, “Paramos bei Bogotá, Río Dagua”); Thieme, 1907: 137; Weymer, 1912: 206, pl. 56, row f; Krüger, 1924: 47; Gaede, 1931: 510; Adams, 1986: 253 (synonymy with D. drusilla proposed); d’Abrera, 1988: 844, 845 (venter, dorsum); Pyrcz, 1999a: 228 (latter three as synonym of D. drusilla ).

Material examined: COLOMBIA: 1 male: white rectangular label: N. Granada, Hewitson coll., 79-69, Daedalma drusilla, Hew. 1; white rectangular label: B.M.Type, No. Rh.4061, Daedalma drusilla ♂ Hew.; rounded red and white label: Type; rectangular label: drusilla, 1-39 Hew. [LECTOTYPE of Daedalma drusilla Hewitson , herein designated], BMNH; 1 male: Colombia, Cundinamarca, La Calera, 2800–3100 m, 22.IX.2002, G. Rodríguez leg., TWP; 2 males: Cundinamarca, La Calera, 3000–3400 m, 08.III.2003, G. Rodríguez leg., GRM; 1 male: Cundinamarca, Páramo Cruz Verde, 3200 m, 29.III.1999, J-F. Le Crom leg., TWP, (prep. genit. 01/ 28.05.2008); 1 male: Cundinamarca, Chingaza road, 3000 m, 28.X.2007, H. Warren-Gash leg., HWG; 1 female: white rectangular label: Río Dagua, Klbr.; violet label: origin; blue label: lecto-paratype, female, Daedalma dora Staudinger des. Lee D. Miller 1989 [LECTOTYPE of Daedalma dora Staudinger , herein designated], ZMHB; 1 female: same data, [PARALECTOTYPE of Daealma dora Staudinger , herein designated], ZMHB; 2 females: Colombie, Env. Bogotá, Frère Apollinaire-Marie, 1918; BMNH; 1 female: Cundinamarca, Choachí, 2800 m, 21.I.2007, H. Warren-Gash leg., HWG; VENEZUELA: 1 male: Táchira, Tamá N. P., Betania-vía La Línea, 2700–3000 m, 17.IV.1996, T. Pyrcz leg., TWP; 2 males: Táchira, Tamá N. P., Betania-vía La Línea, 2900–3000 m, II.2008, T. Pyrcz leg., (prep. genit. TWP- 02/ 28.05.2008), MZUJ.

Redescription: MALE ( Figs. 7A, 7C): Head: Antennae dorsally chestnut, ventrally orange brown, club flattened laterally, slightly darker than shaft; eyes chocolate brown, lustrous; palpi medium brown covered with sparse, greyish and brown hair. Thorax blackish; legs beige; abdomen dorsally and laterally blackish, ventrally dull dark brown. Wings: FW length 23–24 mm, mean: 23.3 mm, n=4; FW fringes alternately sandy yellow and chocolate brown. FWD chocolate brown, a shade lighter and duller in distal half, greyish along outer margin. HWD chocolate brown, uniform. FWV dull grey brown with lighter, diffused patches in discal cell, subapical and submarginal areas, a double apical-postdiscal patch in subapical area lighter than surroundings, whitish; apical area suffused with chocolate brown; three black costal streaks in subapical area; three black subapical dots with white pupils in R4-R5, R5-M1 and M1-M2 and further three, brownish, diffused submarginal dots in M2-M3, M3-Cu1 and Cu1- Cu2. HWV ground colour medium brown liberally dusted with sandy yellow scales and decorated with a nondescript pattern of crimson red bands and lines dusted with silver scales in postbasal, postdiscal and submarginal area, with roughly triangular silver submarginal patch along vein M3, invariably larger than remainder; a row of seven submarginal whitish dots ringed with black parallel to outer margin. Genitalia ( Figs. 10C, 10D): Uncus stout, longer than dorsum of tegumen; gnathos 2/3 length of uncus; saccus deep, about same length as uncus; valvae slender, elongate with a smooth ampulla and an apical hook curved upwards; aedeagus smooth, about same length as valvae, terminal 1/3 slightly curved.

FEMALE ( Fig. 7B, 7D): FWD dark brown in median half, chestnut in apical area and along outer margin; a wide pale orange area extending from postmedian to submarginal area and from Sc to anal margin, overcast with brown in subapical area (in some specimens orange markings are faint and diffused), with a sharp distal intrusion of brown along vein M3, and extending basally into discal cell reaching costa, within discal cell becoming progressively darker due to suffusion of brown, enclosing a single brown dot in cell Cu1-Cu2; fringes alternately yellow and dark brown on vein ends. HWD ground colour dark brown progressively lighter and duller distally; a wide pale orange band extending from postmedian to submarginal area and from costa towards anal margin, fading away in cell Cu2-1A, with basal edge bent at a right-angle in cell M2-M3, and a dentate outer margin produced distally along veins, enclosing a series of six brown dots, largest of which in Cu1-Cu2, smallest in M2-M3; fringes alternately yellow and dark brown at vein ends. FWV ground colour lighter brown than on upperside, chocolate brown only in discal cell; light orange markings shaped as on upperside except that patch in discal cell is disconnected from wide postdiscal band; only two black subapical dots apparent, in R5-M1 and M1-M2; light beige diffuse subapical and apical patches. HWV colour pattern similar to other subspecies, but with a somewhat stronger whitish and silver pattern overcast. Genitalia ( Fig. 16A): Sinus vaginalis with narrow entrance, flattened anteriorly with strongly marked wrinkles on its lateral walls; antrum opens to sinus vaginalis posteriorly, not at its base; ductus bursae connects with bursa copulatrix acentrically; colliculum developed as a widened, posterior part of ductus bursae; batten on lamella postvaginalis "W" shaped, with rounded central part; outer walls of papillae anales at base of rudimentary apophyses posteriores set off as well marked bumps; bursa copulatrix with two ribbon-like, parallel signa consisting of minute teeth; surface of bursa with long parallel wrinkles.

Remarks: Daedalma drusilla was described from an indefinite locality in Colombia. The comparison of the male lectotype with recently collected individuals suggests that the former comes from the Eastern Cordillera, almost certainly from the area of Bogotá, which was the only source of cloud forest butterflies from that range during the mid 19 th century ( Adams, 1986). It is, however, impossible to ascertain whether it comes from the eastern or western slopes of the Cordillera. This is an important issue since most species of Pronophilina have distinct eastern and western subspecies in that range. Most examined individuals of D. drusilla from the Eastern Cordillera come from the eastern slopes in the department of Cundinamarca, and El Tamá in the far north of the Cordillera. Males from these two areas do not appear to differ. Only a few females were examined, and only one with precise data.

Staudinger (1897) described Daedalma dora , based on one male and three females. Adams (1986: 253), and subsequently Lamas et al. (2004), considered D. dora as a junior synonym of D. drusilla . Adams (op. cit.) did not examine the four syntypes and based his judgement on the fact that the description of the male of D. dora “tallies exactly” with Hewitson’s D. drusilla . This is correct and, indeed, one of Staudinger’s (1897) syntypes, the male collected at 3000 m near Bogotá, agrees with the nominate drusilla . However, the original illustration of D. dora shows a female. Two females were examined in ZMHB, including one bearing an old label “origin,” identifying it as syntype, and another labelled by L. D. Miller in 1989 (unpublished) as the “ lectotype ”. Although we agree with the selection of the lectotype, having not been published, it is not valid, and we thus formally designate this female as the lectotype here. Staudinger claimed that the three females of dora were collected in Río Dagua, which is west of Cali in the Western Cordillera. However, there are serious doubts about the veracity of these data. First of all, the presence of D. drusilla in the Western Cordillera has never been confirmed, despite numerous collections made throughout the range and particularly in the Río Dagua area. Although Pyrcz & Rodríguez (2007) did list it from the range, this was based solely on Staudinger’s report. Secondly, there have always been doubts about the true origin of the butterflies collected by Kalbreyer, presumably in the Western (Küsten) Cordillera. Adams (1986) suggested that some of them may actually have come from Ocaña, which is in the north of the Eastern Cordillera (Norte de Santander). In fact, most of the individuals of the genus Pedaliodes (sensu lato) collected by Kalbreyer, and deposited in the BMNH, represent endemic species or subspecies found in the area of Bogotá or from other Eastern Cordillera localities. On the other hand, Kalbreyer collected no endemic Western Cordillera taxa. It is therefore plausible that the female types of dora also came from the Eastern Cordillera.

There are three known phenotypes of Eastern Cordillera females of D. drusilla . Besides the “dora form” phenotype, with conspicuous yellow markings, there is a “faint form” with barely noticeable orange markings, and an “intermediate form” with orange markings somewhat suffused with brown. These may well prove to represent local subspecies when more material with reliable and precise data becomes available. The “intermediate” type is found on the eastern slopes, immediately East of Bogotá. The “faint form” is known to occur in El Tamá, which is the northern extremity of the range, and possibly also on the western slopes in Cundinamarca. The locality of the “dora form” females is unknown but we hypothesise that they may have come from the southern part of Cundinamarca ( Facatativá area ) .