Taguaiba Freitas, Zacca & Siewert, 2023

Espeland, Marianne, Nakahara, Shinichi, Zacca, Thamara, Barbosa, Eduardo P., Huertas, Blanca, Marín, Mario A., Lamas, Gerardo, Benmesbah, Mohamed, Brévignon, Christian, Casagrande, Mirna M., Fåhraeus, Christer, Grishin, Nick, Kawahara, Akito Y., Mielke, Olaf H. H., Miller, Jacqueline Y., Nakamura, Ichiro, Navas, Vanessa, Patrusky, Brooke, Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Richards, Lindsay, Tan, Denise, Tyler, Stephanie, Viloria, Angel, Warren, Andrew D., Xiao, Lei, Freitas, André V. L. & Willmott, Keith R., 2023, Combining target enrichment and Sanger sequencing data to clarify the systematics of the diverse Neotropical butterfly subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae), Zoological Research 2023, pp. 1-73 : 28-61

Taguaiba Freitas, Zacca & Siewert genus novum.

Type species — Taygetis drogoni Siewert, Zacca et al., 2013 , by present designation.

Zoobank registration: https://zoobank.org/Nomenclatural Acts/A1AE37F3-5212-453C-AADD-A87F452EFA5D

Systematic placement and diagnosis. Taguaiba gen.n. is a mem-ber of the ‘ Taygetis clade’, where it is sister to a clade containing Pseudodebis + Taygetis ( Figure 7 , FULL dataset, SH-aLRT 100, UFB 98). Species of Taguaiba gen.n. resemble species of Pseudodebis in wing pattern, but can be distinguished from the latter by: (a) the acute apex of the FW in cell R 3 -R 4 ( Figure 21 ), which is rounded in Pseudodebis , although this character is somewhat variable in some species, for example, T. servius comb.n.; (b) the male genitalia of Taguaiba gen. n. species have elongated brachia directed upwards and no cornuti on the vesica (brachia are short and cornuti are present in Pseudodebis — see illustrations in Siewert et al. [2013] and Forster [1964, pp. 76 – 77]); (c) the female genitalia have the lamella antevaginalis fused to the lamella post-vaginalis, forming a sclerotized sterigma that can exhibit lateral projections (in T. drogoni comb.n., T. ypthima comb.n. and T. fulginia comb.n.), a ductus bursae that is sclerotized in the posterior region, and a well-developed corpus bursae with the paired signa occupying the entire bursae.

Etymology. The generic name is based on that of the Taguaîba , an evil spirit from the mythology of the Brazilian indigenous people Tupinambá ( Métraux, 1950), whose original distribution includes the core distribution of the species of this new genus. Taguaiba should be treated as a neuter noun in the nominative singular.

Description ( Figure 21 ). Some notable characters include the following: Eyes naked; pterothoracic legs dorsally slightly darker, tibia with two principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally, pair of spurs of similar length at distal end of tibia, first tarsomere with three principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally, remaining tarsomeres with four principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally. Large Euptychiina (FW length typically 32 – 38 mm), FW with apex acute in cell R 3 -R 4. No strong sexual dimorphism: VFW with four small circular ocelli from R 4 -Cu 1, each with a well-marked white pupil, and wide brown sub-basal line inside the discal cell; VHW with five ocelli from Rs-Cu 2, each with a well-marked white pupil, and a narrow brown sub-basal line from costal to anal margin. Males with androconial scales on DFW and DHW. Male genitalia with a pair of elongated brachia directed upwards with or without ventral projection at base, apex of valvae serrated or hook-like, saccus cylindrical and elongated, vesica without cornuti (see illustrations in Siewert et al., 2013, p. 23, figure 6). Female genitalia with a sclerotized sterigma with or without lateral projections, ductus bursae sclerotized at the posterior region and corpus bursae well developed with the paired signa occupying the entire bursae (see illustrations in Siewert et al., 2013, p. 24, figure 7).

Distribution and natural history ( Figure 22 ). Siewert et al. (2013) summarized the distribution (also shown here in Figure 22 ), biology and taxonomic history of members of this genus.

Discussion. Using DNA barcodes and up to three nuclear genes of 52 species within the ‘ Taygetis clade’ plus seven euptychiine out-groups, Matos-Maraví et al. (2013) proposed the exclusion of T. ypthima and T. rectifascia from Taygetis and indicated that a new genus should be described to contain both species; that genus is described here as Taguaiba gen.n. The morphology of this group of species was subsequently described ( Siewert et al., 2013). Taguaiba ypthima comb.n. and Taguaiba rectifascia comb.n. also share morphological similarities in their wing pattern elements, venation and male and female genitalia (see illustrations in Siewert et al., 2013), which are shared with Taguaiba drogoni comb.n., Taguaiba fulginia comb.n. and Taguaiba servius comb.n, all placed in the ‘ Taygetis ypthima species group’ by Siewert et al. (2013). In our study, the ‘ T. ypthima species group’ and respective subgroups as proposed in Siewert et al. (2013) were recovered as monophyletic with the following relationships: ([ T. drogoni comb.n. + T. ypthima comb.n.] [ T. rectifascia comb. n. + T. fulginia comb.n.]). Currently, T. servius comb.n. is only known from old collection specimens, which has so far precluded the obtaining of DNA sequences. The inclusion of T. servius comb.n. in Taguaiba gen.n. is thus based on morphology and should be tested in future studies. In the study of Matos-Maraví et al. (2013) study, T. ypthima comb.n. and T. rectifascia comb.n. were sister to Pseudodebis . This relationship was not recovered in our study, in which species of Taguaiba gen.n. appear stably as sister to a clade containing Pseudodebis + Taygetis ( Figure 7 , FULL dataset, SH-aLRT 100, UFB 98).

Taguaiba Freitas, Zacca & Siewert , gen.n.

drogoni ( Siewert, Zacca, Dias & Freitas, 2013) , comb.n., was Taygetis [ Siewert et al. (2013, ZooKeys, 356: 11-29)] fulginia (D’Almeida, 1922) , comb.n., was Taygetis [ Siewert et al. (2013, ZooKeys, 356: 11-29)]

rectifascia (Weymer, 1907) , comb.n., was Taygetis

= stigma (Weymer, 1907), comb.n., was Taygetis

= latifascia (Weymer, 1907), comb.n., was Taygetis

= epithyma ( Forster, 1964), nom. nud., comb.n., was Taygetis

servius (Weymer, 1910) , comb.n., was Taygetis [ Siewert et al. (2013, ZooKeys, 356: 11-29)]

ypthima (Hübner, [1821]) , comb.n., was Taygetis

= xantippe (Butler, 1870), comb.n., was Taygetis

= ophelia (Butler, 1870), comb.n., was Taygetis

= semibrunnea (Weymer, 1910), comb.n., was Taygetis

= lineata (Kivirikko, 1936) , comb.n., was Taygetis

Figures

FIGURE 7 Phylogeny of the ’Taygetis clade’ based on the FULL dataset. Interpretation of the support values can be found in the legend. The scale bars under the butterfly images equal 1 cm.

FIGURE 21 Taguaiba drogoni comb.n. (a) male wing venation; (b and c) male dorsal (b) and ventral (c); (d and e) female dorsal (d) and ventral (e). Scale bars 1 cm.

FIGURE 22 Taguaiba gen.n. Species diversity mapped on a 2 degree grid.