Alesa Doubleday, 1847

Santos, Wildio Ikaro Da Graça, Dolibaina, Diego Rodrigo, Dias, Fernando Maia Silva, Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik & Casagrande, Mirna Martins, 2023, A review of the South American metalmark genus Alesa Doubleday, 1847 (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae: Eurybiini) with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 5284 (1), pp. 77-120 : 79-80

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5284.1.3

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7334FB57-41A0-47CA-BCBF-FA108B13CEC1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7930842

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03FB5F61-FFB3-FFDE-FF36-FEC7099FFAE1

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Alesa Doubleday, 1847
status

 

Alesa Doubleday, 1847 View in CoL View at ENA

Alesa Doubleday, 1847 View in CoL . List. Lep. Brit. Mus. 2, p. 1; included species: Alesa prema View in CoL , Alesa smaragdifera View in CoL , Alesa priolas View in CoL — Westwood, 1851, in Doubleday. Gen. diurn. Lep. 2, p. 417.—Herrich-Schäffer, 1853. Samml. bek. aussereurop. Schmett., p. 55.—Ménétriés, 1855. Enum. Corp. Anim. Mus. Petrop., Lep. 1, p. 50.—Weidemeyer, 1864. Proc. ent. Soc. Philad. 2: 30.—Bates, 1868. Journ. Linn. Soc. London, Zool. 9 (39): 5.—Herrich-Schäffer, 1868. Corr.-Blatt zool.-min. Ver. Regensburg 22: 121.—Kirby, 1871. Syn. Cat. diurn. Lep., p. 286.— Scudder, 1875. Proc. Amer. Ac. Sc. 10: 107; type species: [ Erycina View in CoL ] prema View in CoL .—M̂schler, 1876. Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien 26: 303.—Wallace, 1876. Geogr. Verbreit Thiere 2, p. 518.—Kirby, 1879. Cat. Coll. diurn. Lep. Hewsiton, p. 274.—Glaser, 1887. Cat. etymol. Coleopt. Lepid., p. 274.—Staudinger & Schatz, 1888, in Staudinger & Schatz. Exot. Schmett. 1, p. 242.—R̂ber, 1892, in Staudinger & Schatz. Exot. Schmett. 2, p. 238.—Mengel, 1905. Cat. Erycinidae , p. 40, 54.— Stichel, 1910, in Wytsman (ed.). Gen. Ins. 112A, p. 79.— Seitz, 1916. Gross-Schmett. Erde 5, p. 651.—Dalla Torre, 1927. Ent. Nachr.-Bl., Troppau, 1: 3.— Stichel, 1930. Lep. Cat. 40, p. 292.—Hemming, 1967. Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Ent., Suppl. 9: 36.—Brown, 1993. Occas. Paper IUCN Sp. Surv. Comm. 8: 59.— d’Abrera, 1994. Butt. Neotrop. Region 6, Riodinidae View in CoL , p. 933.— Hall, 2003. Syst. Ent. 28: 23; [indirectely synonymized Mimocastnia View in CoL ].— Callaghan & Lamas, 2004, Riodinidae View in CoL , p. 148, in Lamas (ed.). Checklist: Part 4A. Hesperioidea—Papilionoidea, in Heppner (ed.) Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera View in CoL 5A; syn.: Mimocastnia View in CoL .— Hall & Ahrenholz, 2010. Trop. Lep. Res. 20 (1): 19.

Mimocastnia Seitz, 1913 View in CoL . Gross-Schmett. Erde 5, pl. 127 ( Mimocastnia rothschildi View in CoL ).— Seitz, 1916. Gross-Schmett. Erde 5, p. 652; type species: Mimocastnia rothschildi Seitz, 1913 View in CoL .— Stichel, 1930. Lep. Cat. 40, p. 295.— d’Abrera, 1994. Butt. Neotrop. Region 6, Riodinidae View in CoL , p. 934.— Brévignon & Gallard, 1997. Lambillionea 97 (3)(1): 334.— Hall & Ahrenholz, 2010. Trop. Lep. Res. 20 (1): 21.

Type species of Alesa View in CoL . Erycina prema Godart, [1824] View in CoL , by subsequent designation by Scudder (1875).

Type species of Mimocastnia View in CoL : Mimocastnia rothschildi Seitz, 1913 View in CoL , by original designation.

Diagnosis. As one of the two genera included in the subtribe Eurybiina , species of Alesa and Eurybia can be distinguished from other species of Riodinidae by the following characters: eyes with a metallic bluish-green gloss in live specimens; bristlelike scales on medial surface of labial palpi; male genital capsule posteriorly directed; and setose transtilla with three processes, one central and two lateral ( Hall 2003). Alesa is distinguished from its sister genus Eurybia by their generally smaller size and by the following characters: presence of bristlelike scales only on the medial surface of the first segment of the labial palpi; third segment of the labial palpi longer than half distance between antennae; male forewing upper side with submarginal dark spots at center of the intervenal spaces; submarginal spots rectangular, restricted to the hindwing; marked sexual dimorphism; and male genitalia with a wide median process of transtilla.

Redescription. Head: 2.5 times wider than high; frons whitish to yellow-orangish, with an anterior dark brown spot extending dorsally to the posterior margin of head; paraocular area and below and behind eyes from whitish to yellowish orange. Eyes naked, covering about 2/3 of the head, with metallic bluish-green gloss (evident in live specimens). Labial palpus narrow, slightly flattened laterally, extending up to 2/3 of eyes’ height, mostly whitish to yellow-orangish, third segment and ventral end of second segment dark brown; first segment short, twice longer than wide, anterodorsally directed; second segment more or less erect, three times longer than the first; third segment cylindrical, almost as long as half the length of the second, anterodorsally directed, distally pointed; females with longer labial palpus, almost reaching the height of the eye. Antenna length ranging from 60% (“ prema and telephae groups”) to 70% (“ amesis group”) of forewing length; shaft dark brown; club short and flattened with a ventral keel, distal segments with orange-reddish nudum.

Thorax: dorsally similar to the color of the bands of the wings upper side, ventrally similar to the ground color of the wings underside.

Prothoracic leg: covered by long, filiform scales, with the same ground color of the wings underside; coxa narrow and elongated at the base in males and short in females; tarsus fused in males and segmented in females, about the same length of the tibia; femur slighly larger than tibia.

Mesothoracic and metathoracic legs: slender, one third larger than the prothoracic leg, covered by short scales and of the same color; coxa short, femur slightly curved and larger than the tibia; tibia with distal tiny spines; tarsi slightly projected distally with dark brown scales.

Forewing: costal margin slightly convex, apex rounded, outer margin convex, tornus obtuse and anal margin straight; with five radial veins, discal cell about half the length of wing; both sides with four transversal bands, one basal, one postbasal, one discal and one postdiscal; forewing upper side with submarginal dark spots between veins, usually merging with the postdiscal band.

Hindwing: rounded, costal margin slightly convex, apex rounded, outer margin convex, tornus obtuse and anal margin convex; discal cell about as long as half the length of the wing; underside with a row of pale rectangular submarginal ocelli-like spots from Rs to 3A, delimited anteriorly by a darker postdiscal band and posteriorly by the marginal line, with a black central element, more developed and usually iridescent in M 1 –M 3 and CuA 2 –2A (except in A. rothschildi and A. juliae sp. nov.).

Abdomen: about 1.5x longer than thorax; dorsally similar to the color of the bands of the wings upper side, ventrally similar to ground color of the wings underside.

Male genitalia: tegumen with a long and broad ventral lobe; two separated lateral fenestra between tegumen and uncus; uncus dorsally rectangular, wider than long, with a median indentation producing two lobes in posterior margin; anterior projection of saccus about as long as uncus; valva rectangular basally, distally divided in an lower/ outer and another upper/inner process; transtilla fused to the upper process of valva, with a median esclerotized process laterally limited by two setose processes; fultura inferior short and narrow, joining aedeagus just posterior to its mid-length; aedeagus 2 to 2.5x the combined length of tegumen and the uncus, as wide as 2/3 the width of valvae, straight to slightly curved dorsoventrally, 40–45% of its length tapered to a ventral posterior tip, ejaculatory bulb opens anteriorly and vesica without cornuti.

Female genitalia: papilla analis more or less triangular, posterior half setose; sterigma as a narrow incomplete ring; ostium variably membranous to sclerotized; ductus bursae long and narrow, frequently with a sclerotized incomplete ring near ostium; bursa copulatrix distinctively shorter and wider than ductus bursae, with a pair of lateral signa (absent in A. juliae sp. nov.).

Key to species groups

1 Frons with yellow lateral bands.......................................................................... 2

1’ Frons without yellow lateral bands............................................................ “ prema View in CoL group”

2 Antennal club tip dorsally black............................................................. “ telephae View in CoL group”

2’ Antennal club tip dorsally white.............................................................. “ amesis group”

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Riodinidae

Loc

Alesa Doubleday, 1847

Santos, Wildio Ikaro Da Graça, Dolibaina, Diego Rodrigo, Dias, Fernando Maia Silva, Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik & Casagrande, Mirna Martins 2023
2023
Loc

Mimocastnia

Seitz 1913
1913
Loc

Mimocastnia

Seitz 1913
1913
Loc

Mimocastnia

Seitz 1913
1913
Loc

Mimocastnia rothschildi

Seitz 1913
1913
Loc

Mimocastnia rothschildi

Seitz 1913
1913
Loc

Riodinidae

Grote 1895
1895
Loc

Riodinidae

Grote 1895
1895
Loc

Riodinidae

Grote 1895
1895
Loc

Alesa smaragdifera

Westwood 1851
1851
Loc

Alesa

Doubleday 1847
1847
Loc

Alesa priolas

Godart 1824
1824
Loc

Erycina

Lamarck 1805
1805
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