Lasaia arsis Staudinger [1887]

Arellano-Covarrubias, Arturo, Luis-Martínez, Armando & Llorente-Bousquets, Jorge, 2023, Description of the females of two species of the genus Lasaia (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) and new records for Mexico, Zootaxa 5231 (1), pp. 24-36 : 25-27

Lasaia arsis Staudinger [1887]

( Figures 1A, 1B , 2A , 3A )

Description ♀. n=1; FW= 15.46 mm ( Fig. 1B ). Head. Brown hairy eyes, with white scales at the palps; ocular ring with white-brown scales; frons with white and brown scales. Antennae. Black with rounded white scales. Abdomen and thorax. Brown scales in the dorsal view and white in ventral view. Legs. White scales over all the legs. Forewing (dorsal view). Background coloration brown with white and black spots. Marginal region with black spots between R 4 -1A+2A; the ones between R 4 -M 1 and CuA 2 -1A+2A wider. Postmedial region have spots of different sizes, the ones that are near of apex, between veins R 3 -M 2, are wider and have trapezoidal shape; those between M 2 -1A+2A are thinner and have a zigzag shape. Medial, submedial and post-basal regions, have the typical spots of the genus. Hindwing (dorsal view). Background coloration brown with white and black spots. Marginal region with irregular spots between apex to tornus. Spots between veins Sc+R 1 -M 2 of the postmedial region, have a trapezoidal shape and are wider compared to the other spots of this region. Spots between veins Sc+R 1 -CuA 1 of the medial region, are enlarged compared to the rest of spots in that area. Submedial and post-basal area have lineal spots.

Genitalia. Corpus bursae thick, globe-shaped, without signa; ductus bursae membranous, wide near of corpus bursae, and thin in the region near the ostium bursae, approximately 1.5 times longer than the corpus bursae; in ventral view it is in the middle part of the sternite 8; sternites 6, 7 and 8 are sclerotized ( Fig. 2A ).

Material examined. Brazil: 1 ♀ (USNMENT 01588358). Rondônia: 62 Km S Ariquemes, 165 m . Faz. Rancho Grande. Ron Leuschner leg.; -10.5333, -62.8000; 18-29 Sept. 1996.

Diagnosis. Females of L. arsis can be distinguished from females of other species of Lasaia by the general whitish coloration on the wings underside, also, it is larger than other known females. On the hind wings, the spots near at the apex, are larger and wider ( Fig. 3A ), when compared to other species of the genus v. gr. L. agesilas callaina and L. sula sula ( Figs. 3C and 3D , respectively)

Distribution. Based on label data of examined specimens, this taxon is distributed in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, French Guiana, Brazil, Argentina (mainly on the Pacific slope), Paraguay and Venezuela ( Fig. 4 ). The elevations range from sea level to 1400 m s.a.l., approximately.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Males and females of Lasaia arsis (A and B), and L. pseudomeris (C and D) in dorsal and ventral view. Scale bars correspond to 1 cm.

FIGURE 2. Female genitalia of Lasaia arsis (A), and L. pseudomeris (B), in ventral view. Ob: ostium bursae; db: ductus bursae, and cb: corpus bursae. Scale bars correspond to 1 mm.

FIGURE 3. Females of Lasaia arsis (A), L. pseudomeris (B), L. agesilas callaina (C), and L. sula sula (D), in dorsal (left) and ventral (right) view. Scale bars correspond to 1 cm.

FIGURE 4. Geographic distribution of Lasaia arsis and L. pseudomeris.