Nivaliodes negrobueno Pyrcz, Fåhraeus & Boyer, 2024

Pyrcz, Tomasz, Mahecha-J., Oscar, Boyer, Pierre, Lachowska-Cielik, Dorota, Cerdeña, Jose, Farfán, Jackie, Garlacz, Rafał, Lorenc-Brudecka, Jadwiga, Bálint, Zsolt, Fåhraeus, Christer, Zając-Garlacz, Kamila S. & Espeland, Marianne, 2024, A snow-dwelling tropical buưerfly? An unprecedented discovery of a new genus of the Pedaliodes clade in an extreme, high-altitude Andean environment (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202 (2), pp. 1-20 : 8

Nivaliodes negrobueno Pyrcz, Fåhraeus & Boyer sp. nov.

Nivaliodes negrobueno Pyrcz, Fåhraeus & Boyer : LSIDurn: l s i d z o o b a n k.o r g: a c t: B3 9 B4 3 4 7 -5 A E A -4 C 7 8 -8 D 2 A - 5B860ED6E28E

Diagnosis

A large species with a dark brown upperside, most similar to the other two congeners described below, N. puriq , which is smaller and even darker, blackish brown on the upperside, with more compressed wings, and N. viracocha , which is lighter on the upperside, with a slightly larger FW white patch. Nivaliodes negrobueno also shares some common characters with previously described species, in particular Pedaliodes puracana Krüger, 1924 , namely the whitish costal postdiscal patch, somewhat larger in N. negrobueno , and, in particular, the diagnostic for both species, a whitish median patch in CuA1–CuA2, with the difference that it is rather rounded in Pedaliodes puracana compared with elongated in N. negrobueno . Besides, N. negrobueno is larger than Pedaliodes puracana and has more elongated wings with conspicuous FW milky white and black fringes, all brown in Pedaliodes puracana .

Description: male ( Fig. 3A–D)

Head: Eyes chestnut, hairy, with a milky white collar; palpi two times the length of head, ventrally covered with long, dorsally short, blackish brown hairy scales and laterally with milky white scales; frons with a tuss of long, blackish brown hair; antennae reaching two-fisshs the length of costa, slender, dark brown, mostly naked, with a club formed gradually, composed of 11 flagellomeres, flattened dorsoventrally; thorax black, dorsally covered with short and sparse, golden brown hairy scales; mesothoracix legs covered with medium brown and blackish brown scales; FW length (27–28 mm, mean. 27.4 mm, N = 18), with a subacute apex and slightly convex outer margin and with long intermittent milky white and black fringes; upperside blackish brown, lustrous, with a small costal patch one-third of the way from distal end of discal cell and apex, spreading over three spaces, costa, R4 + 5–M1, and M1–M2 widening in the middle, and a faint, elongated median patch in CuA1–CuA2, no scent patch; underside dull, blackish brown, with the white costal patch as on the upperside, and the median patch obsolete, sprinkled with white scales in the subapical and apical area. HW oval, with an undulating outer margin and with intermittently grey and whitish fringes, shorter than on the FW; HWD uniform blackish brown, lustrous; HWV ground colour blackish brown, with a heavy whitish ripple pattern covering the entire wing surface without producing any conspicuous pattern except for a very lightly marked, irregular black postdiscal line, edged distally with somewhat denser whitish patch, the unique well-marked pattern is an elongated, white midcostal band extending to vein M2. Abdomen is covered dorsally and laterally with thick black scales and ventrally with chestnut scales.

Genitalia ( Fig. 5A): Tegumen with a flat dorsum; uncus as long as the dorsum of the tegumen, aligned with tegumen, nearly straight, with a blunt tip; subunci approximately one-third the length of uncus, relatively stout; pedunculus short; saccus wide and relatively deep; valvae as long as tegumen + valva, slender, with a humped, smooth dorsum and a subacute apex; aedeagus short, wide, and tubular, compressed and spatulate in the proximal area, with an acute tip.

Description: female ( Fig. 3E–H)

FW length 28 mm, lighter coloured on both the upper- and underside, otherwise similar.

Genitalia ( Fig. 6A): Papillae anales prominent, covered with long but sparse hair; postvaginal lamella strongly sclerotized, with a smooth surface, wide, enclosing a spacious antrum; ductus bursae wide, mildly sclerotized, opening into a large, pear-like corpus bursae, with a smooth surface, no apparent signa.

Variation

As observed so far, negligible, limited to the slightly variable expression of white elements of wing colour pattern, and the sheen of brown, which might be related to ageing of the individuals.

Type material

Holotype ♂: Perú, Lima, Abra Negrobueno, 12°08 ʹ 53″S, 75°37 ʹ 22″W, 4680–4750 m, 2 October 2021, J. Cerdeña, J. Farfán leg., MUSA .

Paratypes (17 ♂ and three ♀): One ♂: same data as the holotype, MUSA ; two ♂ and one ♀: Junín, Road 24 , below Abra Negrobueno, 4580–4600 m, 2 October 2021, T.Pyrcz leg., CEPUJ ; two ♂: Junín, route 24 , Huancayo – Cañete km 222, 12°08 ʹ 52″S, 75°37 ʹ 28″W, 4600 m, P. Boyer leg. ; four ♂ and one ♀: Lima, Abra Negrobueno , −12.1220, −75.6233, 4541 m, 1–28 February 2022, local/ C. Fåhraeus ; one ♂: Lima, Abra Negrobueno vic., −12.1220, −75.6233, 4630 m, 8 November 2021, C. Fåhraeus and local collectors leg., FILS ; four ♂: HV, ruta Seclla – Lircay , 13°05 ʹ 19″S, 75°34 ʹ 25″W, 4550–4650 m, 28 September 2021, J. Cerdeña, J. Farfán leg., MUSM ; one ♀: Huancavelica, route 26B pk 112, −13°05 ʹʹ 20″S, −74°34 ʹ 26″W, 27 September 2021, 4510–4600 m, P. Boyer leg., PBF ; three ♂: same data, T. Pyrcz leg., CEPUJ .

Etymology

This species is named asser its type locality, the Abra (Pass) Negrobueno on the border of the departments of Junín and Lima.

Distribution

Nivaliodes negrobueno was registered from two localities, the Abra Negrobueno on the border of the departments of Junín and Lima, at 4680–4750 m, and above the settlement of Huarac Huachay in Ayacucho, at 4550–4650 m, the two places being 150 km away ( Fig. 10). It is almost certain that the entire distribution of this species is wider and covers most of the high puna, at 4500–5000 m, the rocky escarpments of central Peru. It occurs in open, rocky, windswept puna covered with sparse vegetation dominated by bunch grasses ( Fig. 11).