Penaincisalia juliae Hall & Willmott

Hall, Jason P. W., Willmott, Keith R. & Busby, Robert C., 2005, Five new Penaincisalia species (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Eumaeini) from the Andes of southern Ecuador and northern Peru, Zootaxa 797, pp. 1-20 : 8-10

Penaincisalia juliae Hall & Willmott , new species ( Figs. 1 C,D; 2B; 3C,D,E; 5)

Description.— Male: Forewing length of HT 17 mm (PTs 14–17 mm). Forewing costal and distal margins approximately straight, apex pointed; hindwing anal margin convex, apex rounded, and tornus elongated to form a prominent, tailless, spatulate lobe; venation typical for genus. Dorsal surface: Both wings deep iridescent royal blue, except for a narrow black border at distal margin that broadens at apex, a very narrow black border at costal margin of forewing, and a dark brown hindwing anal fold, hindwing tornal lobe suffused with reddish brown scaling; forewing androconial cluster appears to be a scent pad, with very densely layered, elongate, smooth­tipped black scales, scent pad triangular and centered around upper distal corner of discal cell, with a few androconial scales extending along discal cell end in some specimens ( Fig. 2 B); fringe on both wings black. Ventral surface: Ground color of both wings dark grayish brown, becoming paler towards anal margin of forewing and darker towards base of both wings; discal cell ends marked by a thin dark red line; dark red postdiscal bands broader, with an ill­defined proximal edge and a sharply defined distal edge with a fine line of paler gray scaling, approximately straight forewing band extends diagonally from costa to vein Cu2, slightly jagged hindwing band extends diagonally from costa to vein Cu2, then turns at a sharp acute angle towards anal margin; dark red submarginal markings on forewing tiny spots confined to costal half of wing, markings on hindwing larger crescents extending from apex to tornus, with a few white scales at tornal wing margin and a large black patch immediately distally, a very faint band of scattered grayish scaling proximal to submarginal markings on hindwing; fringe on both wings reddish brown.

Head: Labial palpi dark brown dorsally, gray brown ventrally; second segment with long, dense, ventrally directed scales; third segment short, pointed slightly downwards; eyes brown and densely setose, surrounded by dark brown scaling; frons with long, dense, dark brown setae; antennae 50–60% length of forewing, segments brown with darker sclerotization around tip and white scaling at base, white scaling more widespread ventrally on segments immediately before clubs, clubs broad and black with orange­brown tips.

Body: Thorax dark brown and hairy, with some dull iridescent purple setae dorsally; tegula dark brown; all legs dark grayish brown; abdomen predominantly brilliant iridescent blue dorsally, and entirely dark brown ventrally.

Genitalia ( Figs. 3 C,D,E): Uncus with smoothly rounded posterior margin and broad medial indentation dorsally; gnathos smoothly rounded at elbow, constricted in diameter before tip; tegumen enlarged into a broadly rounded posterio­ventral projection three times width of lower portion of vinculum, tegumen with deep dorsal notch, small saccus is rectangular in ventral view and extends at approximately 90° from vinculum; valvae in lateral view consist of elongate, narrow, roundly tipped posterior processes with a smoothly convex area at their ventral base, valvae joined at anterio­dorsal margin by membranous tissue; aedeagus long and approximately uniformly narrow throughout, with a prominently upturned posterior portion and a blunt angular tip, ductus ejaculatorius exits anterior region of aedeagus from a very elongate dorsal area immediately before rounded anterior aedeagal tip (caecum), two cornuti present in distal portion of aedeagus when vesica uneverted, first a narrow, slightly concave and serrate­tipped rod positioned dorsally in posterior quarter of aedeagus, and second a very short, anteriorly tapered, slightly convex and dorsally serrate spine positioned below posterior tip of first cornutus; dorsal posterior tip of eighth abdominal tergite produced into a short (approximately 25% of total tergite length), narrow, downwardly curved, posterior projection with very slightly bifurcate tip.

Female: Differs from male as follows: Forewing length 17.5 mm. Hindwing tornal area damaged in single known specimen, thus unknown if a broad tail present, as in “ browni group” females. Dorsal surface: Distal black margins slightly broader, purple paler and dull, forewing androconial pad absent. Ventral surface: Ground color of both wings pale brown, increasing contrast of dark red markings, diffuse red scaling present distal to submarginal markings. Head: Second segment of labial palpi slightly shorter.

Type material.— Holotype ɗ, ECUADOR: Loja, km. 15 Yangana­Valladolid rd., 4°25.1'S, 79°9.3'W, 2500 m, 14 May (R. C. Busby) ( USNM).

Paratypes: ECUADOR: Loja, same locality data as holotype, 1ɗ (R. C. Busby) ( USNM), 1ɗ (R. C. Busby) ( MECN), 3ɗ (R. C. Busby) ( RCB), 2ɗ (K. R. Willmott) ( JHKW); 1ɗ, km. 7 Loja­Zamora rd., 3°59.25'S, 79°9.2'W, 2500 m, Oct (I. Aldas & R. C. Busby) ( RCB). Zamora­Chinchipe, 1ɗ, km. 34 Jimbura­San Andrés rd., 4°46.6'S, 79°23.5'W, 2900 m, 23 Sept (J. Robinson­Dean) ( JHKW); Morona­Santiago, 1ɗ, Río Abanico, 2°15.7’S 78°12.9’W, 2150 m, 16 Oct (R. C. Busby) ( RCB). PERU: San Martín, 1Ψ, La Playa, Huicungo, Parque Nacional Río Abiseo [c. 7°40'S, 77°26'W], 2480– 2680 m, 25 July (M. Medina) ( MUSM).

Etymology. — This species is named for the second author’s (KRW) wife, Julia Robinson­Dean, who, to our knowledge, collected the first known male.

Diagnosis.— Because of its distinctive male hindwing shape, we long assumed that juliae belonged to the “ browni group” of Penaincisalia . However, the gross differences we discovered in its male genital morphology, and subtle differences in its ventral wing pattern and body, when examined in more detail, suggest otherwise. Several characters indicate that it belongs to a hitherto unknown species group, hereafter referred to as the “ juliae group”, that includes andreae and libertada , both described below. These three species all differ from “ browni group” members by having brilliant blue iridescence on the dorsum of the abdomen in males, a grayish ground color to both ventral wings resulting in a grayish ventral abdominal surface, instead of a rufous to orange­brown one (these two characters could not be examined in libertada ), well­contrasted reddish brown to red chevrons along the submargin of the ventral hindwing and, to a lesser extent, the ventral forewing, with a variably prominent band of diffuse grayish scaling proximally, and a reddish brown to red postdiscal band on both ventral wings. Although juliae and andreae have somewhat divergent male genital morphology, that of libertada is typical of Penaincisalia , and we therefore tentatively place all three species in that genus.

Penaincisalia juliae is easily distinguished from P. andreae and P. libertada by its larger size, and by lacking a tail from the hindwing tornus, but it also has a darker ventral ground color, reduced submarginal markings on the ventral forewing, substantially reduced grayish scaling on both ventral wings, and a straighter distal margin to the postdiscal band on the ventral hindwing. It is probably most closely related to P. andreae , as both species share an unusual, downwardly curved, posterior projection from the last (eighth) male abdominal tergite (see Figs. 2 E,H). All other Penaincisalia species have a simple rectangular last male abdominal tergite, and such a prominent posterior projection is apparently known elsewhere in the Neotropical Eumaeini only in a few species of the very distantly related Hypostrymon section genus Nesiostrymon Clench , [1964] ( Johnson, 1991; Robbins, pers. comm.).

Biology.— This species inhabits cloud forest from 2150 to 2900 m. Males were encountered in Ecuador perching as solitary individuals or in small groups on hilltops and ridgetops. They rested on bushes 2 to 5 m above the ground and were actively perching from late morning to mid afternoon. One individual was attracted to a rotting fish baited trap placed about 7 m above the ground in an isolated hilltop tree, a phenomenon that is relatively common in forest Lycaenidae .

Distribution.— Penaincisalia juliae currently is known only from southern Ecuador (Morona­Santiago, Zamora­Chinchipe and Loja) to northern Peru (San Martín) (see Fig. 5 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Penaincisalia adults (dorsal surface on left, ventral surface on right) at x 1.6 life­size. A, paratype ɗ P. caeruleanota, Cerro Palma, S. Ecuador (JHKW). B, paratype Ψ P. caeruleanota, km. 11 Yangana­Cerro Toledo rd., S. Ecuador (RCB). C, paratype ɗ P. juliae, km. 34 Jimbura­San Andrés rd., S. Ecuador (JHKW). D, paratype Ψ P. juliae, La Playa, Huicungo, P. N. Río Abiseo, N. Peru (MUSM). E, holotype ɗ P. andreae, Río San Francisco, Zamora­Loja rd., S. Ecuador (USNM). F, holotype ɗ P. libertada, Cumpang, between Tayabamba and Ongón, N. Peru (MUSM). G, holotype ɗ P. i s m a e l i, km. 10 Loja­Zamora rd., S. Ecuador (USNM).

FIGURE 2. Male Penaincisalia dorsal forewing scent pads. A, P. caeruleanota. B, P. juliae. C, P. andreae. D, P. libertada. E, F (higher magnification view of E), P. is ma eli.

FIGURE 3. Penaincisalia male genitalia in lateral (A, C, F, I) and ventral (B, D, G, J) views, with lateral view of eighth tergite in E and H; all genitalia are figured at approximately the same scale, with the width of each boxed figure 3.4 mm. A, B, P. caeruleanota. C, D, E, P. juliae. F, G, H, P. andreae. I, J, P. libertada.

FIGURE 5. Topographic maps of the northern Andes, illustrating the known geographic ranges of the five new Penaincisalia species.