Artines solange Medeiros & O. Mielke, 2019

Medeiros, Adalberto Dantas De, Dolibaina, Diego Rodrigo, Carneiro, Eduardo, Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik & Casagrande, Mirna Martins, 2019, Taxonomic revision of Artines Godman, 1901 (Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae: Moncini) with the description of nine new species, Zootaxa 4614 (1), pp. 1-49 : 13

Artines solange Medeiros & O. Mielke sp. nov.

Figs 7, 29, 56, 68, 78

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Diagnosis. Artines solange sp. nov. differs from the other species of the “ aepitus group” in the following combination of characters: ventral forewing with distal portion of discal cell densely covered with orange scales; uncus with disto-lateral lobes; ventral process of harpe wide and longer than tegumen+uncus; dorsal process of harpe absent; sterigma more or less rectangular; lamella postvaginalis with lateral sclerotized folds and large distal projections; ostium rounded, surrounded by sclerotized area.

Descripiton. Male ( Fig. 7 A–B). Head: antenna with nudum bearing12 segments.

Forewing length: 14 mm.

Dorsal forewing ( Fig. 7A): three apical spots; discal spots reduced to few scales; spot in CuA 2 –2A absent.

Ventral forewing ( Fig. 7B): as in A. aepitus .

Ventral hind wing ( Fig. 7B): apical portion of discal cell densely covered by orange to yellow scales; central black spot as wide as long; blue discal spots elongated.

Genitalia ( Fig. 29 A–L): tegumen more or less rectangular, with proximal margin concave and distal margin convex and strongly angled ( Fig. 29C), in lateral view larger than length of gnathos; ventral arm of tegumen as long as dorsal arm of saccus ( Fig. 29A). Saccus shorter than tegumen+uncus, base larger than lateral margin ( Fig. 29B). Uncus, in dorsal view, quadrate, shorter than tegumen and with two ventrally curved disto-lateral lobes ( Fig. 29C). Gnathos as in the other species of the group ( Fig. 29A, D). Valva approximately four times longer than wide; sacculus elongated, about 1/3 of width of valva; costa rectangular and not contiguous with ampulla; ampulla rectangular, longer than costa and directed distally; ventral process of harpe wide, longer than tegumen+uncus, distal 1/3 not dilated and approximately rounded, with apical setae thick and long; dorsal process absent ( Fig. 29 E–F). Aedeagus lost during preparation.

Female ( Fig. 7 C–D). Forewing length: 13 mm. Similar to male.

Genitalia ( Figs 56 A–B, 68): tergum VIII as in A. aepitus . Sterigma more or less rectangular; lamella antevaginalis without proximo-ventral folds; lamella postvaginalis with lateral fold, distal projections wide and rounded, medially separated by shallow and narrow indentation, proximo-lateral projections weakly developed and not bilobed. Ostium rounded, surrounded by sclerotized area; ductus bursae without sclerotized plates.

Variation. No relevant variation was observed.

Comments. Artines solange sp. nov. is one of the rarest or the least collected species of the “ aepitus group”. It is also one of the easiest to recognize based on the male and female genitalia. Even though the aedeagus was lost during preparation, before that the general pattern of the “ aepitus group” species were observed, particularly the narrow, simple and elongate ventral process.

The association with the female was based on the color of the ventral hind wing, such as the distal portion of the discal cell densely covered with orange scales and central black spot as wide as long, besides collecting locality. However, in view of the fact that Artines species are similar and different species can potentially occur in the same locality, the association is tentative and for this reason the only female was not included in the type-series.

Geographic distribution ( Fig. 78). The species is known only from east of Brazilian Amazon Rainforest. BRAZIL— Maranhão: Imperatriz and Sumaúma.

Temporal distribution. This species occurs in July and August.

Host plant. Unknown.

Etymology. The name of the new species is in honor to Dr. Solange Maria Kerpel, who has been contributing to the study of butterflies in the Brazilian northeast, in addition to her incentive to the first author in getting start the study on the taxonomy of butterflies. The name is a noun in apposition.

Type material. Holotype male deposited at the DZUP with the followings labels : / HOLOTYPUS / Imperatriz, MA [ranhão, Brazil], 15.VII.1974, Exc [ursão] Dep [ar]t[ament]o [de] Zool [ogia] leg., / gen. prep. A. Medeiros 2018 / DZ 41.889 / Holotypus Artines solange Medeiros & O. Mielke det. 2018 /.

Additional material (only female). BRAZIL— Maranhão: Sumaúma (formerly a district of Montes Altos), 1 female, 10.VIII.1974, O. Mielke leg., DZ 41.800 ( DZUP).