Abstract
We here propose a new, monotypic genus, Amiga Nakahara, Willmott & Espeland, gen. n., to harbor a common Neotropical butterfly, described as Papilioarnaca Fabricius, 1776, and hitherto placed in the genus Chloreuptychia Forster, 1964. Recent and ongoing molecular phylogenetic research has shown Chloreuptychia to be polyphyletic, with C.arnaca proving to be unrelated to remaining species and not readily placed in any other described genus. Amigaarnacagen. n. et comb. n. as treated here is a widely distributed and very common species ranging from southern Mexico to southern Brazil. A neotype is designated for the names Papilioarnaca and its junior synonym, Papilioebusa Cramer, 1780, resulting in the treatment of the latter name as a junior objective synonym of the former. A lectotype is designated for Euptychiasericeella Bates, 1865, which is treated as a subspecies, Amigaarnacasericeella (Bates, 1865), comb. n. et stat. n., based on molecular and morphological evidence. We also describe two new taxa, Amigaarnacaadela Nakahara & Espeland, ssp. n. and Amigaarnacaindianacristoi Nakahara & Marín, ssp. n., new subspecies from the western Andes and eastern Central America, and northern Venezuela, respectively.
Highlights
Butterflies are considered to have the best-studied taxonomy of any insect group, but the nymphalid subfamily Satyrinae includes some of the remaining groups still in most need of research, in part owing to its high diversity
Butler (1877) grouped species related to species currently placed in Chloreuptychia under his “arnaea [sic] group”, without providing a diagnosis, including Euptychia arnaea [sic] Fabricius, 1776, E. sericeella, E. chloris, E. herse, E. callichloris, E. hewitsonii, E. agatha, and E. tolumnia, in addition to three unrelated species
Deeper relationships are mostly not well supported it is clear that C. arnaca is not closely related to the remaining Chloreuptychia species, as found by Espeland et al (2019) based on 368 loci, as well as phylogeny inferred based on hybrid enrichment data generated for this study
Summary
Butterflies are considered to have the best-studied taxonomy of any insect group, but the nymphalid subfamily Satyrinae includes some of the remaining groups still in most need of research, in part owing to its high diversity. The “subdivision 1” was characterized by “Wings ventrally with regularshaped ocelli, not elongated” and included Euptychia sericeella Bates, 1865 and Papilio ebusa Cramer, 1780, “subdivision 2” was characterized by “Hindwings ventrally with ocelli centered with irregular and elongated spots” and included P. chloris Cramer, 1780, P. herse Cramer, 1775, E. callichloris Butler, 1867, E. hewitsonii Butler, 1867, E. agatha Butler, 1867, and E. tolumnia Cramer, 1777 Both subdivisions contained some species currently (Lamas 2004) not placed in Chloreuptychia. Butler (1877) grouped species related to species currently placed in Chloreuptychia under his “arnaea [sic] group”, without providing a diagnosis, including Euptychia arnaea [sic] Fabricius, 1776, E. sericeella, E. chloris, E. herse, E. callichloris, E. hewitsonii, E. agatha, and E. tolumnia, in addition to three unrelated species. Neotypes for the names P. arnaca and P. ebusa are designated, and two new subspecies are described based on wing pattern and DNA data
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