Immature stages and new host plant records for four satyrine species feeding on herbaceous bamboos in southeastern Peru (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae: Satyrini).

Abstract

We here document the immature stages of three euptychiine butterflies, Nhambikuara mima (Butler, 1867), Splendeuptychia furina (Hewitson, 1862), and Paryphthimoides brixius (Godart, [1824]), all found feeding on a species of herbaceous bamboo, Taquara micrantha (Kunth) I.L.C.Oliveira R.P.Oliveira (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae) in Madre de Dios, Peru. This study is the first to report the life history of these three taxa with their natural host plant. We provide illustrations of immatures, head capsules, and the host plant for each of these three species. The immature morphology of these taxa supports recent generic arrangements of these three species in comparison with their close relatives, namely Splendeuptychia furina to Nhambikuara mima and Paryphthimoides brixius to Paryphthimoides terrestris (Butler, 1867), a species documented in our successive study. Thus, the present study includes taxonomic implications based on immature stages by discovering putative synapomorphic characters of larvae and pupae. These pairs of closely related species occur in micro-sympatry at the study site in southeastern Peru, and our observations possibly suggest niche partitioning between sibling species. Additionally, we report two herbaceous bamboo species, Olyra latifolia L. and Taquara micrantha (Kunth) I.L.C.Oliveira R.P.Oliveira as the first known natural host plants for Magneuptychia harpyia (C. Felder R. Felder, 1867).