Daedalma drusilla Hewitson

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

Daedalma drusilla Hewitson

Daedalma drusilla Hewitson, 1858: 86 , pl. 1, fig. 7. Colombia, New Granada.

Remarks: This is a polytypic species, whose subspecies are best separated by their females, which differ in the contrasting, orange, yellow or reddish upperside colour patterns. The males have few, if any, distinctive colour patterns, all being blackish brown on the upperside and differing, slightly, in the FWV subapical markings. Comparative material from Colombia is, unfortunately, poor, particularly for females. Moreover, most examined females from Cundinamarca do not bear precise collecting locality data, hindering our understanding of the distribution of D. drusilla subspecies. The systematic arrangement presented below should therefore be considered preliminary. Adams (1986) claimed that D. drusilla is restricted to the Colombian Eastern Cordillera, but this is incorrect, as this species is found in other Colombian ranges as well, certainly in the Central Cordillera and, possibly, also in the Western Cordillera ( Pyrcz & Rodríguez, 2007). It also occurs in northern Ecuador and south-western Venezuela ( Pyrcz & Viloria, 2007). Daedalma drusilla is closely related to D. inconspicua and the two are locally sympatric and/or parapatric along an elevational gradient in the Colombian Central Cordillera and northern Ecuador, supporting their separate species status. D. drusilla is generally smaller than D. inconspicua , with males darker, blackish brown on the upperside, and with shorter HW “tails”.