A global map of species at risk of extinction due to natural hazards.

An often-overlooked question of the biodiversity crisis is how natural hazards contribute to species extinction risk. To address this issue, we explored how four natural hazards, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, overlapped with the distribution ranges of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles that have either narrow distributions or populations with few mature individuals. To assess which species are at risk from these natural hazards, we combined the frequency and magnitude of each natural hazard to estimate their impact. We considered species at risk if they overlapped with regions where any of the four natural hazards historically occurred (n = 3,722). Those species with at least a quarter of their range subjected to a high relative impact were considered at high risk (n = 2,001) of extinction due to natural hazards. In total, 834 reptiles, 617 amphibians, 302 birds, and 248 mammals were at high risk and they were mainly distributed on islands and in the tropics. Hurricanes (n = 983) and earthquakes (n = 868) affected most species, while tsunamis (n = 272), and volcanoes (n = 171) affected considerably fewer. The region with the highest number of species at high risk was the Pacific Ring of Fire, especially due to volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, while hurricane-related high-risk species were concentrated in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and northwestern Pacific Ocean. Our study provides important information regarding the species at risk due to natural hazards and can help guide conservation attention and efforts to safeguard their survival.

Wing pattern diversity in Eunica butterflies (Nymphalidae: Biblidinae): phylogenetic analysis implies decoupled adaptive trends in dorsal sexual dimorphism and ventral eyespot evolution.

Butterfly eyespots are wing patterns reminiscent of vertebrate eyes, formed by concentric rings of contrastingly coloured scales. Eyespots are usually located close to the wing margin and often regarded as the single most conspicuous pattern element of butterfly wing colour displays. Recent efforts to understand the processes involved in the formation of eyespots have been driven mainly by evo-devo approaches focused on model species. However, patterns of change implied by phylogenetic relationships can also inform hypotheses about the underlying developmental mechanisms associated with the formation or disappearance of eyespots, and the limits of phenotypic diversity occurring in nature. Here we present a combined evidence phylogenetic hypothesis for the genus Eunica, a prominent member of diverse Neotropical butterfly communities, that features notable variation among species in eyespot patterns on the ventral hind wing surface. The data matrix consists of one mitochondrial gene region (COI), four nuclear gene regions (GAPDH, RPS5, EF1a and Wingless) and 68 morphological characters. A combined cladistic analysis with all the characters concatenated produced a single most parsimonious tree that, although fully resolved, includes many nodes with modest branch support. The phylogenetic hypothesis presented corroborates a previously proposed morphological trend leading to the loss of eyespots, together with an increase in the size of the conserved eyespots, relative to outgroup taxa. Furthermore, wing colour pattern dimorphism and the presence of androconia suggest that the most remarkable instances of sexual dimorphism are present in the species of Eunica with the most derived eyespot patterns, and are in most cases accompanied by autapomorphic combinations of scent scales and "hair pencils". We discuss natural and sexual selection as potential adaptive explanations for dorsal and ventral wing patterns.

Mutualistic interactions shape global spatial congruence and climatic niche evolution in Neotropical mimetic butterflies.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying species distributions and coexistence is both a priority and a challenge for biodiversity hotspots such as the Neotropics. Here, we highlight that Müllerian mimicry, where defended prey species display similar warning signals, is key to the maintenance of biodiversity in the c. 400 species of the Neotropical butterfly tribe Ithomiini (Nymphalidae: Danainae). We show that mimicry drives large-scale spatial association among phenotypically similar species, providing new empirical evidence for the validity of Müller's model at a macroecological scale. Additionally, we show that mimetic interactions drive the evolutionary convergence of species climatic niche, thereby strengthening the co-occurrence of co-mimetic species. This study provides new insights into the importance of mutualistic interactions in shaping both niche evolution and species assemblages at large spatial scales. Critically, in the context of climate change, our results highlight the vulnerability to extinction cascades of such adaptively assembled communities tied by positive interactions.

Phylogenetic systematics of Yphthimoides Forster, 1964 and related taxa, with notes on the biogeographical history of Yphthimoides species.

Species losses are increasing and may have an impact on our understanding of patterns of evolutionary pathways and phylogenetic relationships among the groups being lost. The knowledge of such patterns can contribute to preventing future losses by identifying which lineages have higher or lower diversification rates, thus informing conservation strategies. Recent years have seen a significant growth in studies of butterfly systematics, allowing a better understanding of evolutionary relationships among most groups and revealing significant taxonomic chaos in several groups. One of the latter groups is the nymphalid subtribe Euptychiina (Satyrinae), which has been shown to include a number of non-monophyletic genera based on recent molecular phylogenetic analyses. Among others, these genera include Yphthimoides, which is widespread throughout the Neotropical region but particularly diverse in the southeastern Neotropics, and a pair of related genera, Pharneuptychia Forster, 1964 and Moneuptychia Forster, 1964. Using molecular data, this study scope and aims were to provide a phylogenetic hypothesis that corroborates Yphthimoides as presently conceived being non-monophyletic, a result reinforced by a comparative study of the male genitalic morphology. Our results also show that Pharneuptychia and Moneuptychia, plus a species misplaced elsewhere in the Euptychiina, Euptychoides castrensis (Schaus, 1902), form a well supported clade, and that the latter 'species' is a complex of cryptic species. We therefore propose a number of taxonomic rearrangements in the present work to resolve these issues: Yphthimoides eriphule (A. Butler, 1867) will be moved to a new genus; Y. affinis (A. Butler, 1867), Y. maepius (Godart, [1824]), Y. mimula (Hayward, 1954), Y. neomaenas (Hayward, 1967) and Y. mythra (Weymer, 1911) are being transferred to Malaveria Viloria & Benmesbah, 2021; Pharneuptychia innocentia (Godart, [1824]) will be moved to another genus to be described; and Euptychoides castrensis, Pharneuptychia romanina (Bryk, 1953) and Yphthimoides viviana (Romieux, 1927) are being moved to Moneuptychia. The dating of divergences points to a split between the ancestral lineage of Yphthimoides and its sister group, Carminda Ebert and Dias, inDias 1998, during the last half of the Miocene, around 11.86 Mya, and to the diversification of the Pharneuptychia during the same time 11.35 (±3.52) Mya. Biogeographic analysis showed that the most recent common ancestor of Yphthimoides started to diversify either in the the Brazilian Cerrado savannas or in a combined area of Cerrado and South Atlantic Forest, with a possible change in the ancestral habitat of Carminda. Furthermore, ancestral character mapping favors a savanna origin hypothesis over a forest origin hypothesis.

The roles of hybridization and habitat fragmentation in the evolution of Brazil's enigmatic longwing butterflies, Heliconius nattereri and H. hermathena.

BACKGROUND: Heliconius butterflies are widely distributed across the Neotropics and have evolved a stunning array of wing color patterns that mediate Müllerian mimicry and mating behavior. Their rapid radiation has been strongly influenced by hybridization, which has created new species and allowed sharing of color patterning alleles between mimetic species pairs. While these processes have frequently been observed in widespread species with contiguous distributions, many Heliconius species inhabit patchy or rare habitats that may strongly influence the origin and spread of species and color patterns. Here, we assess the effects of historical population fragmentation and unique biology on the origins, genetic health, and color pattern evolution of two rare and sparsely distributed Brazilian butterflies, Heliconius hermathena and Heliconius nattereri. RESULTS: We assembled genomes and re-sequenced whole genomes of eight H. nattereri and 71 H. hermathena individuals. These species harbor little genetic diversity, skewed site frequency spectra, and high deleterious mutation loads consistent with recent population bottlenecks. Heliconius hermathena consists of discrete, strongly isolated populations that likely arose from a single population that dispersed after the last glacial maximum. Despite having a unique color pattern combination that suggested a hybrid origin, we found no genome-wide evidence that H. hermathena is a hybrid species. However, H. hermathena mimicry evolved via introgression, from co-mimetic Heliconius erato, of a small genomic region upstream of the color patterning gene cortex. CONCLUSIONS: Heliconius hermathena and H. nattereri population fragmentation, potentially driven by historical climate change and recent deforestation, has significantly reduced the genetic health of these rare species. Our results contribute to a growing body of evidence that introgression of color patterning alleles between co-mimetic species appears to be a general feature of Heliconius evolution.

Four hundred shades of brown: Higher level phylogeny of the problematic Euptychiina (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) based on hybrid enrichment data.

Relationships within satyrine butterflies have been notoriously difficult to resolve using both morphology and Sanger sequencing methods, and this is particularly true for the mainly Neotropical subtribe Euptychiina, which contains about 400 described species. Known larvae of Euptychiina feed on grasses and sedges, with the exception of the genus Euptychia, which feed on mosses and lycopsids, and the butterflies occur widely in rainforest, cloudforest and grassland habitats, where they are often abundant. Several previous molecular and morphological studies have made significant progress in tackling the systematics of the group, but many relationships remain unresolved, with long-branch-attraction artifacts being a major problem. Additionally, the monophyly of the clade remains uncertain, with Euptychia possibly not being closely related to the remainder of the clade. Here we present a backbone phylogeny of the subtribe based on 106 taxa, 368 nuclear loci, and over 180,000 bps obtained through hybrid enrichment. Using both concatenation and species tree approaches (IQ-TREE, EXABAYES, ASTRAL), we can for the first time strongly confirm the monophyly of Euptychiina with Euptychia being the sister group to the remainder of the clade. The Euptychiina is divided into nine well supported clades, but the placement of a few genera such as Hermeuptychia, Pindis and the Chloreuptychia catharina group still remain uncertain. As partially indicated in previous studies, the genera Cissia, Chloreuptychia, Magneuptychia, Megisto, Splendeuptychia and Euptychoides, among others, were found to be highly polyphyletic and revisions are in preparation. The phylogeny will provide a strong backbone for the analysis of datasets in development that are much more taxonomically comprehensive but have orders of magnitude fewer loci. This study therefore represents a critical step towards resolving the higher classification and studying the evolution of this highly diverse lineage.

Into the Andes: multiple independent colonizations drive montane diversity in the Neotropical clearwing butterflies Godyridina.

Understanding why species richness peaks along the Andes is a fundamental question in the study of Neotropical biodiversity. Several biogeographic and diversification scenarios have been proposed in the literature, but there is confusion about the processes underlying each scenario, and assessing their relative contribution is not straightforward. Here, we propose to refine these scenarios into a framework which evaluates four evolutionary mechanisms: higher speciation rate in the Andes, lower extinction rates in the Andes, older colonization times and higher colonization rates of the Andes from adjacent areas. We apply this framework to a species-rich subtribe of Neotropical butterflies whose diversity peaks in the Andes, the Godyridina (Nymphalidae: Ithomiini). We generated a time-calibrated phylogeny of the Godyridina and fitted time-dependent diversification models. Using trait-dependent diversification models and ancestral state reconstruction methods we then compared different biogeographic scenarios. We found strong evidence that the rates of colonization into the Andes were higher than the other way round. Those colonizations and the subsequent local diversification at equal rates in the Andes and in non-Andean regions mechanically increased the species richness of Andean regions compared to that of non-Andean regions ('species-attractor' hypothesis). We also found support for increasing speciation rates associated with Andean lineages. Our work highlights the importance of the Andean slopes in repeatedly attracting non-Andean lineages, most likely as a result of the diversity of habitats and/or host plants. Applying this analytical framework to other clades will bring important insights into the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the most species-rich biodiversity hotspot on the planet.

Incompatible Ages for Clearwing Butterflies Based on Alternative Secondary Calibrations.

The recent publication of a time-tree for the plant family Solanaceae (nightshades) provides the opportunity to use independent calibrations to test divergence times previously inferred for the diverse Neotropical butterfly tribe Ithomiini. Ithomiini includes clades that are obligate herbivores of Solanaceae, with some genera feeding on only one genus. We used 8 calibrations extracted from the plant tree in a new relaxed molecular-clock analysis to produce an alternative temporal framework for the diversification of ithomiines. We compared the resulting age estimates to: (i) a time-tree obtained using 7 secondary calibrations from the Nymphalidae tree of Wahlberg et al. (2009), and (ii) Wahlberg et al.'s (2009) original age estimates for the same clades. We found that Bayesian clock estimates were rather sensitive to a variety of analytical parameters, including taxon sampling. Regardless of this sensitivity however, ithomiine divergence times calibrated with the ages of nightshades were always on average half the age of previous estimates. Younger dates for ithomiine clades appear to fit better with factors long suggested to have promoted diversification of the group such as the uplifting of the Andes, in the case of montane genera. Alternatively, if ithomiines are as old as previous estimates suggest, the recent ages inferred for the diversification of Solanaceae seem likely to be seriously underestimated. Our study exemplifies the difficulty of testing hypotheses of divergence times and of choosing between alternative dating scenarios, and shows that age estimates based on seemingly plausible calibrations may be grossly incongruent.

Four new species of Moneuptychia (Lepidoptera: Satyrinae: Euptychiina) from Brazil.

This paper describes four new species of Moneuptychia as follows: M. montana Freitas, M. vitellina Freitas & Barbosa, M. pervagata Freitas, Siewert & Mielke and M. wahlbergi Freitas, Barbosa, Siewert & Mielke from south and southeastern Brazil. Details are presented on the morphology of adults of all species, and immature stages for two species, and we discuss the taxonomy and identification of the genus Moneuptychia. The mitochondrial CoxI "barcode" region was used for exploring the utility of this DNA marker to identify these species, giving strong support for all new species.

Systematics and evolutionary history of butterflies in the "Taygetis clade" (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae: Euptychiina): towards a better understanding of Neotropical biogeography.

The so-called "Taygetis clade" is a group of exclusively Neotropical butterflies classified within Euptychiina, one of the largest subtribes in the subfamily Satyrinae. Since the distribution of the ten genera belonging to this group ranges throughout the entire Neotropics, from lowlands to lower montane habitats, it offers a remarkable opportunity to study the region's biogeographic history as well as different scenarios for speciation in upland areas. We inferred a robust and well-sampled phylogeny using DNA sequences from four genes (4035 bp in total) using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference. We estimated divergence times using the Bayesian relaxed clock method calibrated with node ages from previous studies. Ancestral ranges of distribution were estimated using the dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis (DEC) model as implemented in the program Lagrange. We propose several taxonomic changes and recognize nine well-supported natural genera within the "Taygetis clade": Forsterinaria (subsuming Guaianaza syn. nov.), Parataygetis, Posttaygetis, Harjesia (excluding Harjesia griseola and Harjesia oreba), Pseudodebis (including Taygetomorpha syn. nov.,), Taygetina (subsuming Coeruleotaygetis syn. nov., Harjesia oreba comb. nov., Taygetis weymeri comb. nov. and Taygetis kerea comb. nov.), Taygetis (excluding Taygetis ypthima, Taygetis rectifascia, Taygetis kerea and Taygetis weymeri), and two new genera, one containing Harjesia griseola, and the other Taygetis ypthima and Taygetis rectifascia. The group diversified mainly during late Miocene to Pliocene, coinciding with the period of drastic changes in landscape configuration in the Neotropics. Major dispersals inferred from the Amazon basin towards northwestern South America, the Atlantic forests and the eastern slope of the Andes have mostly shaped the evolution and diversification of the group. Furthermore, expansion of larval dietary repertoire might have aided net diversification in the two largest genera in the clade, Forsterinaria and Taygetis.

Stegosatyrus, a new genus of Euptychiina from the grasslands of neotropical realm (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae).

Three species of Pampasatyrus Hayward, 1953 (Satyrinae, Pronophilina) are transferred to Stegosatyrus n. gen. (Euptychiina) based on morphological evidence: S. imbrialis (Weeks, 1901) n. comb. from Bolivia (Cochabamba) and northern Argentina; S. ocelloides (Schaus, 1902) n. comb. from Paraguay (Hernandarias and Caaguazú) and Brazil (Midwest, Southeast and South regions); and S. periphas (Godart, [1824]) n. comb. from southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina (Buenos Aires) and Uruguay. A new species is described, Stegosatyrus hemiclara Pyrcz, Boyer & Zacca, n. sp. from the Andes of southern Peru. The neotype of Satyrus periphas Godart, [1824] and the lectotypes of Epinephele imbrialis Weeks, 1901 and Euptychia ocelloides Schaus, 1902 are designated. Redescriptions and illustrations are presented, including information on geographical and temporal distribution, and habitats. The oviposition process, eggs and first instars of S. periphas are published for the first time.

Micro-CT imaging in species description: exploring beyond sclerotized structures in lichen moths (Lepidoptera: Erebidae, Arctiinae, Lithosiini).

X-ray micro-computed tomography imaging (micro-CT) is valuable for systematic research since it permits the non-destructive scanning and imaging of internal structures of very rare species and/or type specimens. Additionally, micro-CT allows to view the morphology and the functional anatomy of structures in their natural anatomical position, without deformations that typically occur using classical dissection protocols. In this study we provide the description of two new species of lichen moths (Lepidoptera: Erebidae, Lithosiini) from the Atlantic Forest in eastern Brazil: Nodozana heliae Moraes sp. nov. from Rio de Janeiro state and Epeiromulona pataxo Moraes & Aguiar sp. nov. from Bahia state. The male and female genitalia as well as the wing morphology were examined by means of non-destructive micro-CT, subsequent 3D model reconstruction, 360 degree spinning animations, 2D images from different angles, and those were compared against classical genitalia dissections from the same specimens. We conclude that techniques complement each other, micro-CT being particularly useful to study wing venation, sclerotized internal structures and muscles, while classical dissection is useful to study membranous structures, particularly in the female genitalia, abdominal skin and specialised scales on the male 8th sternite.

Reassessment of the type locality of Euptychiastigmatica Godman, 1905, with the description of two new sibling species from Amazonia (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Satyrini).

A brief historical review regarding the type locality of Euptychiastigmatica Godman, 1905 was conducted, which suggests that its type locality is actually Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, rather than northeastern Argentina, as previously purported. Consequently, E.stigmatica and its senior synonym E.cyanites Butler, 1871, are regarded to be two species-group names representing a taxon in the euptychiine genus Caeruleuptychia Forster, 1964 known from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. A lectotype is designated for E.cyanites. Additionally, two closely related species are named and described using an integrative approach with morphological and molecular evidence. Caeruleuptychiaharrisi Nakahara & Freitas, sp. nov. and C.aemulatio Nakahara & Willmott, sp. nov. both occur in Amazonia and COI barcode data recovered these taxa as part of the caerulea clade of Caeruleuptychia.

Morphology and behavior of the early stages of the skipper, Urbanus esmeraldus, on Urera baccifera, an ant-visited host plant.

The Neotropical genus Urbanus (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) contains around 34 described species, and is widely distributed from the extreme southern United States to Argentina. Here, we describe the larval morphology and behavior of Urbanus esmeraldus (Hübner)(Hesperiidae) in Urera baccifera (Urticaceae), a plant producing food rewards and fleshy fruits that attract ants (including predacious species) in a Brazilian forest. Larvae pass through five instars and construct two kinds of leaf shelters. Experiments with ejected fecal pellets showed that these can serve as cues to ground-dwelling ants that climb onto host plants and potentially attack the larvae. Manipulation with pellets placed at different distances suggests that ejection behavior decreases larval vulnerability to ant predation. Larval preference for mature leaves may be related with increased predation risk at ant-visited young leaves. The study shows that a combination of natural history and experimental data can help understand the life history of a butterfly using a plant with high predation risk.

Biological Aspects and Movements of Neotropical Fruit-Feeding Butterflies.

The patterns of insect movement are the cumulate product of many individual decisions and can be shaped by the way morphology and behaviour interacts with landscape structure and composition. Hence, the ongoing process of habitat fragmentation increases the distance among suitable habitats and changes those in such a way that it may favour some movement behaviour. Our study described some biological traits (sex ratio, age structure and individual permanence in a population), as well as the movements of fruit-feeding butterflies along the horizontal dimension (among habitats: forest interior, natural forest transition - ecotone and anthropogenic forest transition - edge) and the vertical dimension (between canopy and understory). We sampled butterflies monthly over 1 year in the Atlantic rainforest, South-eastern Brazil, following a standardized design using bait traps. We found that sex ratio was male biased for five out of the six more abundant species and the age structure showed an increase in recruitment of new individuals in the dry season followed by a noticeable aging of the populations in the wet season. In general, our results revealed an aggregated spatial distribution, in which few individuals travelled long distances while most individuals were recaptured in the same trap, suggesting that all studied habitats currently provide the necessary conditions for the maintenance of butterfly populations, favouring fewer movements and narrow home ranges for both sexes and species. Conservation of a set of heterogeneous habitats it is especially important for the maintenance of sedentary butterflies and of those that move large distances.

Habitat generalist species constrain the diversity of mimicry rings in heterogeneous habitats.

How evolution creates and maintains trait patterns in species-rich communities is still an unsolved topic in evolutionary ecology. One classical example of community-level pattern is the unexpected coexistence of different mimicry rings, each of which is a group of mimetic species with the same warning signal. The coexistence of different mimicry rings in a community seems paradoxical because selection among unpalatable species should favor convergence to a single warning pattern. We combined mathematical modeling based on network theory and numerical simulations to explore how different types of selection, such as mimetic and environmental selections, and habitat use by mimetic species influence the formation of coexisting rings. We show that when habitat and mimicry are strong sources of selection, the formation of multiple rings takes longer due to conflicting selective pressures. Moreover, habitat generalist species decrease the distinctiveness of different mimicry rings' patterns and a few habitat generalist species can generate a "small-world effect", preventing the formation of multiple mimicry rings. These results may explain why the coexistence of mimicry rings is more common in groups of animals that tend towards habitat specialism, such as butterflies.

The Chemistry and Chemical Ecology of Lepidopterans as Investigated in Brazil.

The interdisciplinary field of Chemical Ecology in Brazil is currently composed of groups that emerged through the pioneering studies of Keith Spalding Brown Jr. and José Tércio Barbosa Ferreira. Following Keith Brown 's steps, José Roberto Trigo continued investigating the role of plant natural products in mediating the association among insects and their host plants, mainly in the Order Lepidoptera. The role of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in those associations was investigated extensively by Brown and Trigo, and most of what is currently known on this subject is based on their studies. The present work acknowledges their contribution to the Brazilian chemical ecology field and on insect-plant communication studies mediated by different chemical compounds.

Two new species of Hermeuptychia from North America and three neotype designations (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae).

Two new species of Hermeuptychia Forster, 1964 are described. Hermeuptychia sinuosa Grishin, sp. n. (type locality Guatemala: El Progreso, Morazán) is an isolated member of the genus that does not readily fit into known species groups, as suggested by its distinct male and female genitalia and COI DNA barcode sequences. It is distinguished from its congeners by prominently wavy submarginal lines, rounder wings and distinctive genitalia, and can typically be identified by a white dot, instead of an eyespot, near the ventral hindwing apex. Hermeuptychia occidentalis Grishin, sp. n. (type locality Mexico: Guerrero, Acapulco) belongs to the Hermeuptychia sosybius group as indicated by the presence of androconia on the dorsal surface of the wings, genitalia and COI DNA barcodes, and in addition to DNA characters, differs from its relatives in the shape of the uncus and female genitalia. Neotypes of Oreas strigata canthe Hübner, [1811] (type locality Suriname: Gelderland, Suriname River), Megisto acmenis Hübner, 1823 (type locality Argentina: Buenos Aires), and Satyrus cantheus Godart, [1824] (type locality USA: Florida, Pinellas Co., St. Petersburg) and lectotype of Euptychia celmis var. bonaërensis [sic] Burmeister, 1878 (type locality Argentina: Buenos Aires) are designated. These designations establish Hermeuptychia canthe as a valid species widely distributed in South America from Colombia to Bolivia and Southeast Brazil, Euptychia celmis var. bonaërensis [sic] Burmeister, 1878 as a junior objective synonym of Yphthimoides acmenis, and S. cantheus as a junior subjective synonym of Hermeuptychia sosybius (Fabricius, 1793). Papilio camerta Cramer, 1780 is treated as nomen dubium requiring further studies to determine an identity that is consistent with the original description, as it may be conspecific with Paryphthimoides poltys (Prittwitz, 1865) instead of being a Hermeuptychia species as currently assumed.

Se describe dos nuevas especies de Hermeuptychia Forster, 1964. Hermeuptychia sinuosa Grishin, sp. n. (localidad tipo Guatemala: El Progreso, Morazán), es un componente aislado del género que no encaja fácilmente en los grupos de especies conocidas, como lo indica su distintiva genitalia masculina y femenina y las secuencias de ADN del código de barras COI. Se distingue de sus congéneres por tener líneas submarginales prominentemente onduladas, alas más redondas y genitales diferentes, y se puede identificar típicamente por un punto blanco, en lugar de una mancha ocular, cerca del ápice ventral del ala anterior. Hermeuptychia occidentalis Grishin, sp. n. (localidad tipo México: Guerrero, Acapulco) pertenece al grupo de Hermeuptychia sosybius como lo indica la presencia de androconia en las alas anteriores, la estructura genital y secuencias de ADN de la región del código de barras COI, y además de caracteres del ADN, se diferencia de sus parientes en la forma del uncus y la genitalia femenina. Se designa neotipos para Oreas strigata canthe Hübner, [1811] (localidad tipo Surinam: Gelderland, Río Surinam), Megisto acmenis Hübner, 1823 (localidad tipo Argentina: Buenos Aires), y Satyrus cantheus Godart, [1824] (localidad tipo Estados Unidos: Florida, Pinellas Co., St. Petersburg), y el lectotipo de Euptychia celmis var. bonaërensis [sic] Burmeister, 1878 (localidad tipo Argentina: Buenos Aires). Estas designaciones establecen a Hermeuptychia canthe como una especie válida ampliamente distribuida en América del Sur desde Colombia hasta Bolivia y el sureste de Brasil, a Euptychia celmis var. bonaërensis [sic] Burmeister, 1878 como sinónimo objetivo más reciente de Yphthimoides acmenis, y a S. cantheus como sinónimo subjetivo más reciente de Hermeuptychia sosybius (Fabricius, 1793). Papilio camerta Cramer, 1780 es tratado como un nomen dubium requiriendo más estudios para determinar una identidad que sea consistente con la descripción original, ya que puede ser coespecífica con Paryphthimoides poltys (Prittwitz, 1865) en lugar de ser una especie de Hermeuptychia como se asume actualmente.

Conserved ancestral tropical niche but different continental histories explain the latitudinal diversity gradient in brush-footed butterflies.

The global increase in species richness toward the tropics across continents and taxonomic groups, referred to as the latitudinal diversity gradient, stimulated the formulation of many hypotheses to explain the underlying mechanisms of this pattern. We evaluate several of these hypotheses to explain spatial diversity patterns in a butterfly family, the Nymphalidae, by assessing the contributions of speciation, extinction, and dispersal, and also the extent to which these processes differ among regions at the same latitude. We generate a time-calibrated phylogeny containing 2,866 nymphalid species (~45% of extant diversity). Neither speciation nor extinction rate variations consistently explain the latitudinal diversity gradient among regions because temporal diversification dynamics differ greatly across longitude. The Neotropical diversity results from low extinction rates, not high speciation rates, and biotic interchanges with other regions are rare. Southeast Asia is also characterized by a low speciation rate but, unlike the Neotropics, is the main source of dispersal events through time. Our results suggest that global climate change throughout the Cenozoic, combined with tropical niche conservatism, played a major role in generating the modern latitudinal diversity gradient of nymphalid butterflies.

Interaction between Mutualisms: Ant-tended butterflies exploit enemy-free space provided by ant-treehopper associations.

Although mutualisms have been intensively investigated, demonstration of indirect effects between co-occurring mutualistic systems is rare. For instance, the ecological consequences of co-occurrence of ant-tended insects on a plant have never been examined for survival effects on either trophobiont species. Here, we assess the selective pressures mediating co-occurrence of a facultative ant-tended butterfly (Parrhasius polibetes) with ant-tended treehoppers (Guayaquila xiphias) on Schefflera vinosa shrubs. We evaluated host plant selection and caterpillar survival in P. polibetes in the presence and absence of ant-treehopper associations. Paired trials revealed that butterflies preferably oviposit on branches hosting ant-tended treehoppers when they had a choice between those and branches without this interaction. Presence of ant-tended treehoppers on a branch reduced the abundance of P. polibetes' natural enemies and improved caterpillar survival in both premyrmecophylic and ant-tended phases. Thus ant-tended treehoppers create an enemy-free space on foliage that butterflies exploit to protect larval offspring. These findings connect two widely documented ant-trophobiont mutualisms and highlight the importance of considering multiple interactions for a proper understanding of ant-plant-herbivore systems. Detection of other ant-based mutualisms on oviposition to improve offspring survival may have represented an important evolutionary step in the process of host plant selection in facultative myrmecophilous butterflies.