Lamprospilus bicolor Faynel & Prieto, 2023

Prieto, Carlos, Faynel, Christophe & Lorenc-Brudecka, Jadwiga, 2023, Integrative description of two new species and two new subspecies of Lamprospilus Geyer (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), Zootaxa 5244 (2), pp. 145-159 : 149-151

Lamprospilus bicolor Faynel & Prieto , sp. nov.

( Figures 9–12 , 17, 25 , 32 )

Type material. Holotype male: COLOMBIA, Valle del Cauca, Alto Aguacatal, Cerro Brisas , 1970 m, 12/06/2005, C. Prieto. The holotype is currently deposited in RCCP (specimen number: m518 ).

Paratypes (n = 29): 10 males, RCCP: same locality as the holotype, 5–25/08/2005, specimen numbers: m463 , m465 , m479 , m526 , m527 , m535 , m556 , m480 , m481 , m482 , C. Prieto ; 4 males, RCCP: COLOMBIA, same locality as the holotype, 1950 m, 08/09/2018, specimen numbers: m2486 , m2487 , m2488 , m2489 , C. Prieto ; 4 males, RCCP: COLOMBIA, Valle, Alto Aguacatal , La Elvira , 1900 m, 1–10/08/2018, specimen numbers: m2342 , m2358 , m2356 , m2357 , C. Prieto ; 1 male, RCJFLC: COLOMBIA, Cerro Aguacatal, Quinchía , Risaralda, 15/05/1997, 1600 m, J. Salazar leg. ; 2 males, HNHM: Cerro Ingrumá ( Municipio de Ríosucio ), hilltop 2270 m, 3 pm, 29/07/1994, Salazar leg. ; 3 males, HNHM: same locality as the holotype, 6 and 22/08/2005, Prieto leg. ; 2 females, RCCP: COLOMBIA, Valle, Alto Aguacatal , La Elvira, 1900 m, 1,5/08/2018, specimen numbers: m2359 , m2351 , C. Prieto ; 1 female, RCCP: same locality as the holotype, 1850 m, 6/08/2018, specimen number: m2370 , C. Prieto . 1 female, HNHM: Valle: R. Aguacatal , S. Antonio , 2280 m, 2003.VI. 10, Dahners leg. ; 1 female, HNHM: Valle: R. Cali , El Faro , 1700 m, 10/02/2005, Dahners leg.

Description.

Male: Wings. Forewing average costal length measured from wing base to apex 16.6 mm (n = 25); hindwing with a short black tail with white tip at end of vein CuA 1, and with an additional, three times longer, tail at end of vein CuA 2; dorsal forewing surface deep blue, fading to black towards the apex, dorsal forewing marginal area black and 2.2 mm wide; dorsal hindwing surface deep blue with a 1 mm black marginal area, anal fold grey and a minute orange spot at tornus. Ventral forewing surface with two tones of greyish brown, three white lines crossing the wing, discal cell crossed by a small basally incurved white line reaching sub-costal vein (Sc), a second medial white line continuous from Sc to CuA 2 and deeply dislocated towards the base from CuA 2 to 2A, a third more diffuse white submarginal line from R 2 to CuA 2; entire area between CuA 2 and 2A on ventral forewing with a clear greyish blue suffusion; ventral hindwing surface with two tones of greyish brown, and three white lines crossing the wing, the first postbasal from Sc to the basal vein of the discal cell, the second in the medial area forming the typical “W”-shaped pattern of the Theclinae , and the third sub-marginal. Black cubital spot surrounded by red-orange scales in CuA 1 -CuA 2 accompanied by another small black spot at tornus ( Figure 9 ).

Male genitalia: Brush organs dense and dark, well developed tooth in the middle of the gnathos. Slender saccus rectangular in shape ( Figure 17 ).

Female: Wings. Forewing average costal length measured from wing base to apex 15mm (n = 3); hindwing with a short black tail with white tip at the end of CuA 1, and with an additional tail, three times longer, at the end of CuA 2; dorsal forewing surface bright blue, turning to black towards apex, marginal area black and 2.2 mm wide; dorsal hindwing bright blue with a 1.3 mm wide black marginal area, anal fold grey with a minute orange spot at tornus. Ventral forewing surface lustrous grey, three white lines crossing the wing, discal cell crossed first by a small straight one, the second a continuous medial from R 1 to CuA 2 and deeply dislocated and arrowhead-shaped from CuA 2 to 2A, and the third submarginal from R 2 to 2A; ventral hindwing grey with three white cross lines, the first postbasal from Sc to the discal cell basal vein, the second medial, forming the typical “W”-shaped Theclinae band, and third submarginal; black cubital spot surrounded by red-orange scales in CuA 1 -CuA 2 (bigger than in males) accompanied by another small black spot at tornus ( Figure 10 ).

Adult female body: Thorax and abdomen covered with brown and dark gray scales.

Female genitalia: See diagnosis and Figure 25 .

Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the two tones of the ventral color of both male wings. It comes from the Latin word “bicolor” treated here as a masculine adjective in the nominative singular.

Biology. Males appear to display their main activity around mid-day from 12:00–14:00 hours on trees 4–6 m high in forest clearings. Females were captured visiting isolated bushes or patrolling clearings and paths inside the forest. The immature stages, larval food plants, and adult nectar sources are unknown. Adults were captured during the months of May, June, August and September.

Diagnosis. Males of L. bicolor sp. nov. can be differentiated from those of L. coelicolor (Butler & H. Druce, 1872) and L. aunus (Cramer, 1775) in lacking a dark brown patch at the base of the ventral hind- and forewings and by having three well defined white lines in the ventral fore and hindwing surfaces (see Figures 13, 15 ). Females of L. bicolor sp. nov. and L. coelicolor ( Figures 10, 12 ) are almost indistinguishable and different tonalities of grey in ventral surface could be shared in the wide distributional range of this species. When dissections of males are compared, brush organs are much denser and longer in L. bicolor sp. nov., than in L. coelicolor ( Figures 17, 18 ). L. aunus has no brush organ ( Figure 19 ).

Molecular diagnostic characters and BINs.

Nine intraspecific haplotypes were found in the available sequences of L. bicolor sp. nov. (n = 20). Haplotype diversity was higher in Colombian populations. The lowest overall mean distance to another member of the genus is 3.81% to L. coelicolor from Pastaza, Ecuador. Two BINs were associated to this new species in BOLD systems; BOLD:ACV4947 for the Colombian specimens and BOLD:ACP8506 for the Peruvian specimens. The maximum intraspecific distance was 4.03%. Diagnostic fixed states and their position in the COI barcode sequence are: a cytosine in position 100 of the COI Gen ( Figure 27 ).

Distribution. L. bicolor sp. nov. has been found in Colombia in the valleys of the Aguacatal, Calima and Pance rivers at altitudes between 1900 and 2100 m in Valle del Cauca, and in Quinchía, in Risaralda ( Figure 32 ).

Remarks. This species has been collected regularly for the last 20 years on the eastern slopes of the western mountain range near the city of Cali, Colombia, however it was first considered as a montane form of L. coelicolor ( Prieto & Dahners 2006) . New distributional data and the sequencing of the COI gene barcode region of a good series of specimens allow us to reject the hypothesis of conspecificity with L. coelicolor and consider it as valid species because of the following reasons:

1. The wide distribution of L. bicolor sp. nov. ( Colombia, Peru, Bolivia) is not consistent with a hypothesis of a clearly defined geographic subspecies of L. coelicolor .

2. If the two forms of L. bicolor sp. nov. (from Colombia and Peru) were considered two different parapatric subspecies of L. coelicolor in each country, each subspecies would be genetically closer to individuals of L. coelicolor from populations in its own region. However, L. bicolor sp. nov. from Colombia is closer to L. bicolor sp. nov. from Peru than to L. coelicolor from Colombia. This suggests genetic cohesion and reproductive isolation throughout the geographic distribution of L. bicolor sp. nov. ( Figure 26 ).

Figures

FIGURE 26. Neighbor Joining (NJ) identification tree of full-length barcodes (658 bp) for eleven species of Lamprospilus. BIN (Barcode Index Number) assignment using BOLD is also depicted.

FIGURE 27. Molecular diagnostic characters. Nucleotide sites with unique fixed states for the COI gene, which serve to identify nine species of Lamprospilus. Only species with three or more individuals were included in the analysis. Red: diagnostic characters; orange: partially diagnostic characters.

FIGURE 32. Collecting localities of the new taxa.

FIGURES 9–16. Adults. 9. Lamprospilus bicolor sp. nov. male (Holotype, Aguacatal, Colombia); 10. Lamprospilus bicolor sp. nov. female (Paratype, Aguacatal, Colombia); 11. Lamprospilus bicolor mirador ssp. nov., male (Holotype, Peru); 12. Lamprospilus bicolor mirador ssp. nov., female (Paratype, Peru); 13. Lamprospilus coelicolor, male (French Guiana); 14. Lamprospilus coelicolor, female (French Guiana); 15. Lamprospilus aunus, male (Colombia); 16. Lamprospilus aunus, female (French Guiana).

FIGURES 17–25. Genitalia. 17. Lamprospilus bicolor sp. nov, male (Aguacatal, Colombia); 18. Lamprospilus coelicolor, male (Peru); 19. Lamprospilus aunus, male (Guainía, Colombia); 20. Lamprospilus stegmaier sp. nov, male (Paratype); 21. Lamprospilus draudti, male (Aguacatal, Colombia); 22. Lamprospilus nicetus, male (Cauca, Colombia); 23. Lamprospilus decorata valluna ssp. nov., male (Valle del Cauca, Colombia); 24. Lamprospilus coelicolor, female (Peru); 25. Lamprospilus bicolor sp. nov. female (Aguacatal, Colombia).