Argyrogrammana saulensis tunari Gallard, 2008

Dolibaina, Diego Rodrigo, Dias, Fernando Maia Silva, Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik & Casagrande, Mirna Martins, 2015, Argyrogrammana Strand (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) from Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor, Acre, Brazil, with the description of four new species, Zootaxa 4028 (2), pp. 227-245 : 243-244

Argyrogrammana saulensis tunari Gallard, 2008 , comb. nov.

( Figs 39–42 , 62 , 66 )

Four males and one female of this subspecies were collected at PNSD in 2013 (one male and the female) and 2014 (three males). The males were captured in flight about three meters from the ground around 15:00h. The female was captured in another site at the same hill, at the very end of the day, flying slowly around one meter from the ground.

Recently, Gallard (2008) described two new subspecies of A. iracyi : one from the French Guiana, A. iracyi saulensis Gallard, 2008 ; and another from Bolívia, A. iracyi tunari Gallard, 2008 . According to Gallard (2008), there are no morphological differences in the male genitalia among these taxa and A. iracyi , except by the larger size of the genitalia of the subspecies, probably correlated with their larger body size. After the analysis of figures of the holotypes of A. iracyi , A. iracyi saulensis and A. iracyi tunari , and the specimens collected at the PNSD, we concluded that the subspecies described by Gallard (2008) are not conspecific with A. iracyi or with any Argyrogrammana species, differing by the larger size and elongated shape of the wings. Thus, we recognize A. saulensis nov. stat. as a valid species, and the name tunari as a subspecies of A. saulensis , A. saulensis tunari comb. nov. There are differences between the male and female genitalia of A. iracyi and A. saulensis tunari collected at the PNSD. The tegumen and uncus are longer and projected and the hooked tip of the valvae is enlarged in A. saulensis tunari ( Fig. 62 ), while in A. iracyi the tegumen and uncus are narrow and short, and the hooked tip of the valvae is distally thin ( Fig. 61 ). The female of A. saulensis tunari has the lamella antevaginalis narrow and thin, base of the ductus bursae with a sclerotized ring, corpus bursae long and with two lateral developed signa ( Fig. 66 ), while in A. iracyi the lamella antevaginalis is large, the ductus bursae is totally membranous and the corpus bursae is short ( Fig. 65 ).

Present evidence on the taxonomy of the “ stilbe complex” ( Brévignon & Gallard 1995, Hall & Willmott 1996, Jauffret & Jauffret 2007, Gallard 2008) indicates that both subspecies of A. saulensis are more similar to A. sublimis Brévignon & Gallard, 1995 than to A. iracyi . The morphology of the male genitalia suggests that these taxa may be conspecific with A. sublimis , which is unavailable to us for examination. Specimens of all taxa involved must be carefully examined to draw further conclusions.

Figures

FIGURES 23 – 42. Species of Argyrogrammana collected at the PNSD 23 – 24. A. praestigiosa. 25 – 26. A. johannismarci. 27 – 28. A. brevignoni sp. nov. holotype. 29 – 30. A. rameli. 31 – 34. A. willmotti sp. nov.. 31 – 32. Male holotye. 33 – 34. Female allotype. 35 – 38. A. iracyi. 35 – 36. Male. 37 – 38. Female. 39 – 42. A. saulensis tunari comb. nov. 39 – 40. Male. 41 – 42. Female. Scale bar = 1 cm.

FIGURES 56 – 62. Male genitalia of species of Argyrogrammana collected at the PNSD. 56. A. praestigiosa. 57. A. johannismarci. 58. A. brevignoni sp. nov. holotype. 59. A. rameli. 60. A. willmotti sp. nov. holotype. 61. A. iracyi. 62. A. saulensis tunari comb. nov. Left to right: dorsal view of uncus, lateral view of tegumen, saccus, uncus, gnathos, valva and aedeagus, and ventral view of valva. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURES 63 – 66. Female genitalia of species of Argyrogrammana collected at the PNSD. 63. A. gallardi sp. nov. (tentatively determination). 64. A. willmotti, sp. nov. allotype. 65. A. iracyi. 66. A. saulensis tunari comb. nov. Top to bottom lateral view of papila analis and ventral view of sterigma and bursae copulatrix. Scale bar = 1 mm.