Nivaliodes puriq Pyrcz, Boyer & Cerdeña, 2024

Pyrcz, Tomasz, Mahecha-J., Oscar, Boyer, Pierre, Lachowska-Cielik, Dorota, Cerdeña, Jose, Farfán, Jackie, Garlacz, Rafał, Lorenc-Brudecka, Jadwiga, Bálint, Zsolt, Fåhraeus, Christer, Zając-Garlacz, Kamila S. & Espeland, Marianne, 2024, A snow-dwelling tropical buưerfly? An unprecedented discovery of a new genus of the Pedaliodes clade in an extreme, high-altitude Andean environment (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202 (2), pp. 1-20 : 9-14

Nivaliodes puriq Pyrcz, Boyer & Cerdeña sp. nov.

Nivaliodes puriq P yrcz,Boyer&Cerdeña:LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank. org:act: 21C2C99B-BEE4-4B04-A086-9B056763E1FB

Diagnosis

A medium-sized species, externally most similar to its two congeners, from which it differs by the smaller size, being more compact (less elongated) and even darker, with almost black ground colour. Additionally, the FWD whitish costal patch is slightly smaller, with a straight inner edge, produced in N. negrobueno , and on the HWV the whitish costal patch is very small and narrow, not extending along the postdiscal line as much as in N. negrobueno ; also, there are no traces of any reddish or rufous markings on the HWV as found in some specimens of N. negrobueno .

Description: male ( Fig. 4A, B )

Head: Eyes blackish brown, covered with dense and medium long hair, with a milky white collar; palpi two times the length of head, covered with long, dorsally short blackish brown hairy scales, with a lateral row of milky white scales; frons with a tuft of blackish brown hair; antennae reaching two-fifths the length of costa, slender, dark brown, mostly naked, with a club formed gradually, composed of 11 flagellomeres, flattened dorsoventrally; thorax black, dorsally covered with short and sparse, golden brown hairy scales; mesothoracic legs covered with brown and blackish brown scales; FW length (21–23 mm, mean: 22.5 mm, N = 3), with a subacute apex and slightly convex outer margin, and with long intermittent milky white and black fringes; upperside brown and blackish brown, a shade darker in median half, lustrous, with a small white costal patch one-third of the way from distal end of discal cell and apex, spreading over three spaces, costa, R4 + 5– M1, and M1–M2, widening in the middle, with a straight inner margin, no scent patch; underside dull, blackish brown, with the white costal patch as on the upperside, sprinkled with white scales in the subapical and apical area, and a row of four to five minute white submarginal dots from costa to cell M3–CuA1. HW rounded, with an undulating outer margin and with intermittently grey and milky white fringes; HWD uniform blackish brown, lustrous, hairy in median half; HWV ground colour greyish brown, with a heavy whitish and black ripple pattern covering the entire wing surface without producing any conspicuous pattern except for a very lightly marked, irregular black postdiscal line; the unique well-marked pattern is a short midcostal whitish streak. Abdomen is covered dorsally and laterally with thick black scales and ventrally with dark brown scales.

Genitalia ( Fig. 5B ): Tegumen with a flat dorsum; uncus as long as the dorsum of tegumen, aligned with tegumen, nearly straight, with a blunt tip; subunci approximately half the length of uncus, stout; pedunculus short, with a sharp extremity curved downwards; saccus wide and deep; valvae as long as tegumen + valva, slender, with a moderately humped, slightly irregular dorsum and a subacute apex; aedeagus short, wide, and tubular, about the same length throughout, with an acute tip.

Description: female ( Fig. 4C, D )

FW length 25 mm (N = 2), lighter coloured on both the upper- and underside, otherwise similar.

Genitalia ( Fig. 6B ): Similar to N. negrobueno , with prominent papillae anales, covered with long but rather sparse hair; strongly sclerotized postvaginal lamella with a smooth surface, wide, enclosing a spacious antrum; short, mildly sclerotized, wide ductus burse, opening into a large, pear-like corpus bursae, with a smooth surface, no apparent signa.

Variation

Individual variation is negligible and affects mostly the size of the FWD postdiscal white patch; individuals from Puente Carrizales are characterized by a slightly larger patch.

Type material

Holotype ♂: Perú, Huancavelica, Est de Huari, 4 km east of Trancapampa , HV109, PK26, 12°02 ʹ 48″S, 74°55 ʹ 05″W, 3220 m, 29 September 2021, P. Boyer leg., CEPUJ, to be deposited in MUSM .

Paratypes (10 ♂ and two ♀): Two ♂, same data as the holotype [ PBF] ; three ♂: Huancavelica, Trancapampa, 3000–3200 m, 29–30 September–1 October 2021, T. Pyrcz leg., CEPUJ ; one ♀: Huancavelica, above Trancapampa , 4200 m, 29–30 September–1 October 2021, T. Pyrcz leg., CEPUJ ; three ♂: HV [uancavelica], Trancapampa, 30 km east of Huancayo , 3200 m, 30 September 2021, J. Cerdeña leg., MUSM .

Additional material: One ♂: Perú, Junín, Puente Carrizales, Route Satipo-Mariposa vers Concepción km 72, −11.4867, −74.8859, 3300–3450 m, 15 October2009, P.Boyer leg.,[ PBF] ; one ♂: Junín, Puente Carrizales, 3400–3450 m, 5 June 2019, T.Pyrcz leg., CEPUJ .

Etymology

The specific epithet of this taxon, ‘ puriq ’, means traveller in Quechua and is an allusion to the apparent dispersalist tendency of this species.

Distribution

So far, this species is known from three localities, all of which are within a 60 km radius in the departments of Junín and Huancavelica ( Fig. 10 ). It occurs along the upper limit of cloud forest and in lower puna grasslands.

Figures

Figure 4. Adults. A–D, Nivaliodes puriq. A, male holotype, dorsal, Trancapampa. B, idem, ventral (Trancapampa).C, female paratype, dorsal, Trancapampa. D, idem, ventral. E–H, Nivaliodes viracocha. E, male holotype, dorsal, Viracochan.F, idem, ventral. G, female paratype, dorsal, Viracochan. H, idem, ventral.

Figure 5. Male genitalia in lateral view, with aedeagus extracted in lateral and dorsal view.A, Nivaliodes negrobueno (prep. genit CEP_7679). B, Nivaliodes puriq (prep.genit CEP_10558). C, Nivaliodes viracocha (prep. genit.CEP_10615).

Figure 6. Female genitalia in lateral view.A, Nivaliodes negrobueno (CEP_7680). B. Nivaliodes puriq (CEP_10615). C. Nivaliodes viracocha (prep. genit.CEP_10616).

Figure 10. Map of central Peruvian Andes with known localities of three species of Nivaliodes.