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

Alesa Doubleday, 1847

Alesa Doubleday, 1847 . List. Lep. Brit. Mus. 2, p. 1; included species: Alesa prema , Alesa smaragdifera , Alesa priolas — 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 ] prema .—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 , p. 933.— Hall, 2003. Syst. Ent. 28: 23; [indirectely synonymized Mimocastnia ].— Callaghan & Lamas, 2004, Riodinidae , p. 148, in Lamas (ed.). Checklist: Part 4A. Hesperioidea—Papilionoidea, in Heppner (ed.) Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera 5A; syn.: Mimocastnia .— Hall & Ahrenholz, 2010. Trop. Lep. Res. 20 (1): 19.

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

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

Type species of Mimocastnia : Mimocastnia rothschildi Seitz, 1913 , 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 group”

2 Antennal club tip dorsally black............................................................. “ telephae group”

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