Amphidecta, Butler, 1867

Espeland, Marianne, Nakahara, Shinichi, Zacca, Thamara, Barbosa, Eduardo P., Huertas, Blanca, Marín, Mario A., Lamas, Gerardo, Benmesbah, Mohamed, Brévignon, Christian, Casagrande, Mirna M., Fåhraeus, Christer, Grishin, Nick, Kawahara, Akito Y., Mielke, Olaf H. H., Miller, Jacqueline Y., Nakamura, Ichiro, Navas, Vanessa, Patrusky, Brooke, Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Richards, Lindsay, Tan, Denise, Tyler, Stephanie, Viloria, Angel, Warren, Andrew D., Xiao, Lei, Freitas, André V. L. & Willmott, Keith R., 2023, Combining target enrichment and Sanger sequencing data to clarify the systematics of the diverse Neotropical butterfly subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae), Zoological Research 2023, pp. 1-73 : 13

Amphidecta clade

The ‘ Amphidecta clade’ is well-supported (FULL dataset, 97.9/97, Figure 6 ) as containing three described genera: Amphidecta (4 species), Zischkaia (12 species), Argentaria gen.n. (14 described species), two species whose generic status is under study (Nakahara et al., in preparation) and which remain for the moment in the genus in which they were described, Euptychia (‘ Euptychia ’ ordinata and ‘ Euptychia ’ insignis , listed by Lamas [2004] as incertae sedis), and one species currently placed in Pharneuptychia ( P. innocentia ), closely related to Pharneuptychia innocentia _01 in Figure 6 , based on research by Barbosa et al. (unpublished data). As mentioned above, the placement of Zischkaia in this clade was not supported in the backbone analysis ( Figure S1 ), but the increased taxon sampling within the FULL dataset seems to have helped in placing the genus ( Figures 6 and S 2 ). The same relationship is found in the 4GENES dataset ( Figure S3 ), but support is slightly lower (96.5/87). The relationships among genera in the group, is however, still largely unresolved in all trees, with only the relationships between Amphidecta and the undescribed genus containing ‘ E.’ ordinata and ‘ E.’ insignis well-supported. Peña et al. (2010) similarly found these five generic-level clades to cluster together, except that Hermeuptychia was also placed in the same clade, as sister to Amphidecta + ordinata / insignis . In our tree ( Figure 1 ), the Amphidecta clade, Hermeuptychia clade, Pindis , Lazulina gen.n. and Cristalinaia are all separated by very short branches, and the much larger amount of sequence data available in our study in comparison to Peña et al. (2010) perhaps explain these topological disagreements. Here, we synonymize Rareuptychia Forster, 1964 syn.n., with Amphidecta , since the type species of the former, Euptychia clio Weymer, 1911 , is nested deep within Amphidecta , being sister to A. reynoldsi . Recently, the known species diversity of Zischkaia increased by the addition of nine new species (Nakahara, Zacca, et al., 2019), and multiple Argentaria gen.n. species require description. As noted above, the generic classification of this clade also requires additional work, with the description of two new genera in forthcoming papers (Barbosa et al., in preparation; Nakahara et al., in preparation). Currently, 33 species are recognized, but with the inclusion of undescribed species the clade is estimated to contain approximately 46 species. Members of the ‘ Amphidecta clade’ range from being relatively small to large, and, in general, females present a paler wing colour pattern than males. Some species of Amphidecta , ‘ Euptychia ’ ordinata and ‘ E.’ insignis have the uncus of the male genitalia inflated at its base in lateral view. Zischkaia species in the ‘ saundersii clade’ and Amphidecta pignerator have a small but recognizable dome-like structure located posteriorly on the tegumen. Amphidecta clio comb.n. also has reduced brachia and males of ‘ Euptychia ’ ordinata and ‘ E.’ insignis have a developed eighth tergite with a weakly sclerotized region in the middle. Many species in the clade show rather notable modifications of the VHW ocelli, which may be elongated, split or partially fused with those in adjacent cells. The clade ranges from Mexico to south-eastern Brazil, with its highest diversity in the south-western Amazon (southern Peru and adjacent areas of Brazil). As is common for most members of Euptychiina , hostplants for members of this clade are either bamboo or grasses in the family Poaceae ( Beccaloni et al., 2008; Freitas, 2004, 2022; Freitas, Barbosa, & Marín, 2016; Nakahara, Zacca, et al., 2019).

Figures

FIGURE 1 Summary tree based on the FULL dataset showing the major clades supported in this study. Colours are the same as in Espeland et al. (2019a). Support for major clades is shown. Interpretation of support values can be found in the legend.

FIGURE 2 Phylogeny of Euptychia based on the FULL dataset. Interpretation of support values can be found in the legend. The scale bars under the butterfly images equal 1 cm.

FIGURE 3 Phylogeny of the Cyllopsis clade based on the FULL dataset. Interpretation of support values can be found in the legend. The scale bars under the butterfly images equal 1 cm.

FIGURE 6 Phylogeny of the Amphidecta clade based on the FULL dataset. Interpretation of support values can be found in the legend. The scale bars under the butterfly images equal 1 cm.