Thereus aguacatal Faynel, Le Crom & Fåhraeus, 2025

Faynel, Christophe, Huertas, Blanca, Crom, Jean-François Le, O’Brien, Richard & Fåhraeus, Christer, 2025, Diagnostic male secondary sexual structures and wing patterns in the Thereus genena species group (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Theclinae) with the description of nine new species from Colombia, Peru, Brazil and French Guiana, Zootaxa 5728 (2), pp. 201-246 : 242

Thereus aguacatal Faynel, Le Crom & Fåhraeus sp. nov.

LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 36CE233C-25A5-49EC-A381-400C13822121

Figures 33 , 49 , 65 , 88

Type material. Holotype male ( Fig. 33 ), FW 13.6 mm, labelled as “J.-F. LECROM // Cerro Aguacatal // Quinchia Risaralda // 8/X/94 // Leg: J. Salazar ” (white rectangular label, black printed and handwritten); “JFDA- 374” (white rectangular label, black printed); “ Holotype ♂ // Thereus aguacatal Faynel, Le Crom // & Fåhraeus, 2025” (red rectangular label, black printed). The holotype is from Colombia, Valle del Cauca. Cerro Aguacatal ( 1620 m) is a mountain near Cali ( 5°24´26" N, 75°41´23" W). The holotype is currently in JFLC and it will be deposited in ICN-MHN.

Paratypes ( 13♂). COLOMBIA. Caldas . 1♂, Pensilvania , 1800m, 15.vi.1990, JFDA-371* ( JFLC) ; 1♂, Cerro Clavijo , 1400m, 9.vii.1994, J. Salazar leg. ( HNHM) . Valle del Cauca. 2♂, same locality as holotype, 1600m, 15.v.1993, JFDA-370* & JFDA-375* ( JFLC) ; 1♂, same locality as holotype, 9.x.1994, JFDA-373* ( JFLC) ; 2♂, R. Cali El Faro , 1700m, 2.x.2004, 24.xi.2004, H. Dahners leg. ( HNHM) ; 2♂, El Faro , 7.i.2005, 10.i.2005, H. Dahners leg. ( HNHM) ; 1♂, Los Andres-Faro , 1750m, 27.viii.2005, C. Prieto leg. ( HNHM) ; 1♂, same data, HNHM- NEOLYC-A12* ( HNHM) . 2♂, Pance , El Trueno, 1900m, 18.vii.2024, C. Prieto leg., codes m3452, m3292 ( RCCP) ; 1♂ Pance , El Trueno, 1900m, 30.vii.2024, C. Prieto leg., code: m3270 ( RCCP) ; 2♂, Los Andes , El Faro, 1750m, 21.viii.2005, C. Prieto leg., codes: m550, m551 ( RCCP) ; 2♂, Los Andes , El Faro, 1750m, 21.vii.2005, C. Prieto leg., codes: m397, m398 ( RCCP) ; 1♂, Los Andes , El Faro, 1750m, 1.vii.2006, C. Prieto leg., code: m794 ( RCCP) ; 3♂, Los Andes , El Faro, 1750m, 23.vii.2005, C. Prieto leg., codes: m420, m421, m422 ( RCCP) ; 1♂, Los Andes , El Faro, 1750m, 28.viii.2005, C. Prieto leg., code: m585 ( RCCP) ; 1♂, Los Andes , El Faro, 1750m, 21.viii.2005, C. Prieto leg., code: m549 ( RCCP) . Cauca. 1♂, Popayán, La Tetilla , 1800m, 2°31'60" N, 76°40'00" W, 25.i.2019, E. Burbno leg., m2615, CP Lep 1731* (CP) . ECUADOR. Pichincha. 1♂, 5km Nanegal-Garcia Moreno Rd , 0°09.2' N, 78°39.4' W, 4.vi.2011, 1375-1700m, I. Aldas & R.C. Busby leg., RCB05141 ( RCB) ; 1♂, 21 km Pacto-Guayavillas Rd , 0°11.4' N, 78°51.8' W, 875m, 8.vi.2010, Rio Sardinas, R. Aldas & R.C. Busby, leg., RCB05142 ( RCB) .

We added the following labels “ Paratype ♂ // Thereus aguacatal // Faynel, Le Crom // & Fåhraeus, 2025” (blue rectangular label, black printed).

Diagnosis and description. Thereus aguacatal sp. nov. is sister to a clade formed by T. ortaloides stat. rev. and T. confusus sp. nov. in our ML tree ( Fig. 1 ). It differs from them by: (1) the presence of a single scent pad at the end of the male DFW discoidal cell while T. ortaloides stat. rev. and T. confusus sp. nov. have, in addition to the scent pad, an adjacent brown scent patch centered on the discocellular veins; (2) different male genitalia, especially shorter dorsal brush organs and longer saccus in lateral view ( Figs 60, 61, 65 ); (3) respectively 4.31% and 5.50% mean genetic divergence ( Table 3). Male ( Fig. 33 ), FW length: 13.3 mm (n = 5). Wing. Dorsally dull blue with brown margins, broader on FW. Dark brown scent pad, teardrop-shaped, at the end of the discal cell. Ventrally light grey-brown with the typical white and black postmedian line. Small red orange patch in CuA 1 -CuA 2, not reaching the postmedian line, with black triangular spot on its distal edge; tornus black, anteriorly bordered by white and red orange scales, a few orange scales in CuA 2 -2A. Male genitalia ( Fig. 65 ) More similar in shape to T. endera and relatives but the dorsal projection supporting the brush organs is underdeveloped and the ventral pair of brush organs is not oriented in the axis of the penis but in the direction of the gnathos like in T. ortaloides stat. rev. and relatives. Valvae triangular in lateral view with a step on the ventral edge, more similar to T. ortaloides stat. rev. and its relatives ( Figs 60-64 ) than to T. endera and its allies ( Figs 50–59 ). Female. Unknown.

Ethology. Males likely have territorial activity on the Colombian hilltop regarding the number of collected specimens on the same place.

Sympatry. Thereus aguacatal sp. nov. is sympatric with T. praxis and T. ortalus in Colombia; allopatric with T. ortaloides stat. rev. and T. confusus sp. nov.

Known distribution ( Fig. 88 ). Colombia ( Caldas, Valle del Cauca, Cauca). Ecuador ( PI) .

Etymology. The name of the new species refers to mount Aguacatal, the type-locality. Aguacatal is a Spanish word for an avocado farm. It is a noun used as a name in apposition, not latinized.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Thereus genena species group, phylogenetic tree generated with IQ-Tree using 83 COI sequences. Each specimen has the following information (if available): scientific name, process ID, country, department. Type material in red. Method of construction of the tree: Maximum-Likelihood.

FIGURES 23–33. Adults of Thereus. 23. ♂ Thereus ortaloides stat. rev. (HT, Brazil, MNHN). 24. ♀ Thereus ortaloides stat. rev. (Brazil, DZUP). 25. ♂ T. confusus sp. nov. (HT, Brazil, MPEG). 26. ♀ T. confusus sp. nov. (PT, Brazil, RCCF). 27. ♂ T. praxioides sp. nov. (HT, French Guiana, MNHN). 28. ♀ T. praxioides sp. nov. (PT, French Guiana, RCCF). 29. ♂ Thereus praxis (ST, Colombia, NHMUK). 30. ♀ Thereus praxis (Colombia, Collection Gregory Nielsen). 31. ♂ Thereus ortalus (ST, Mexico, NHMUK). 32. ♀ Thereus ortalus (ST, Mexico, NHMUK). 33. ♂ T. aguacatal sp. nov. (HT, Colombia, ICN-MHN).

FIGURES 34–49. Male forewing androconia. 34. ♂ Thereus endera. 35. ♂ T. geminus sp. nov. 36. ♂ T. cacao sp. nov. 37. ♂ T. antecum sp. nov. 38. ♂ Thereus genena. ♂ 39. ♂ Thereus tiasa. 40. ♂ Thereus angulus stat. rev. 41. ♂ T. borbaensis sp. nov. 42. ♂ T. chontachaca sp. nov. 43. ♂ T. ramirezi sp. nov. 44. Thereus ortaloides stat. rev. 45. ♂ T. confusus sp. nov. 46. ♂ T. praxioides sp. nov. 47. ♂ Thereus praxis. 48. ♂ Thereus ortalus. 49. ♂ T. aguacatal sp. nov. Wings not at same scale for comparison purpose.

FIGURES 60–65. Male genitalia. From left to right: left lateral view with penis in place, left lateral view with penis and brush organs removed (at least one), ventral view and penis in lateral view above. Black arrows show diagnostic characters (see in the text). 60. Thereus ortaloides stat. rev. 61. Thereus confusus sp. nov. 62. Thereus praxioides sp. nov. 63. Thereus praxis. 64. Thereus ortalus. 65. ♂ T. aguacatal sp. nov. Scale bars: 1 mm.

FIGURES 88–89. Geographic distribution of the species of Thereus belonging to the genena group (question mark for imprecise data placed in the center of the province/state). 88. T. aguacatal sp. nov., T. borbaensis sp. nov., T. chontachaca sp. nov., T. ramirezi sp. nov. 89. T. antecum sp. nov., T. genena, T. tiasa.

FIGURES 50–59. Male genitalia. From left to right: left lateral view with penis in place, left lateral view with penis and brush organs removed (at least one), ventral view and penis in lateral view above. Black arrows show diagnostic characters (see in the text). 50. Thereus endera. 51. Thereus geminus sp. nov. 52. Thereus cacao sp. nov. 53. Thereus antecum sp. nov. 54. Thereus genena. 55. Thereus tiasa. 56. Thereus angulus stat. rev. 57. Thereus borbaensis sp. nov. 58. Thereus chontachaca sp. nov. 59. Thereus ramirezi sp. nov. Scale bars: 1 mm.