Oenomaus atena (Hewitson)

Faynel, Christophe, Busby, Robert C. & Robbins, Robert K., 2012, Review of the species level taxonomy of the neotropical butterfly genus Oenomaus (Lycaenidae, Theclinae, Eumaeini), ZooKeys 222, pp. 11-45 : 23

Oenomaus atena (Hewitson)

Distribution, habitat, and remarks.

Oenomaus atena is a widely distributed lowland species that is reliably recorded from Costa Rica, Panama, western Ecuador, French Guiana, Venezuela, Peru, and Brazil (AM, MT). Most species with an “atena-like” ventral wing pattern have historically been identified as Oenomaus atena , which means that virtually all literature records for Oenomaus atena from before 2005 are unreliable.

New material examined.

Costa Rica.- 1♂: Guápiles, 850 ft. alt., June, Schaus and Barnes coll., genitalia on slide X-10-1946, W.D.F. 2333 (USNM). Panama.- 1♂: Cerro Campana, 2000', XII-22-1963, G.B. Small, Genitalia 1992: 15♂ R.K. Robbins (USNM). Ecuador.- 1♂: Esmeraldas, 25 km San Lorenzo-Lita Road, 1°10.0'N, 78°40.0'W, 100 m, VI.2003, San Francisco, R. Aldas & Robert C. Busby leg., gen. prep. CF n°343 (RCB). Peru.- 2♂: MD, 30 km S.W. Pto. Maldonado, 300 m, 20.X.1983,S.S. Nicolay, Genitalia 1992: 16♂ R.K. Robbins (USNM); MD, 10 km north Puerto Maldonado, 200 m, 12°36'S, 69°11'W, 26-30.XI.1993, leg. C. Tello (USNM).

Female.

The female of this species was determined by a pair collected in copula and was illustrated by Faynel (2008, fig. 2).

COI DNA sequence.

Three specimens of Oenomaus atena have been barcoded, including a male from Peru (LO) (CF-LYC-084) and two females from French Guiana (CF-LYC-054 and CF-LYC-057). The latter two have the same brown dorsal wing pattern, ventral wing pattern, and genitalia as the female of Oenomaus atena found in copula. The three barcodes show 0.4% divergence.