Pseudotinea caprina HALL & CALLAGHAN 2003, comb. n.
Creators: name: HALL, JASON P. W.
name: CALLAGHAN, CURTIS J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Riodinidae
Pseudotinea
Pseudotinea caprina

description: Pseudotinea caprina (Hewitson, 1859) comb. n.   
(figures 5A, B, 10A–D)  
 Calydna caprina Hewitson, 1859: 93. Type locality: Brazil. Syntype W BMNH [examined].   
 Identification and taxonomy   
 Average FW length: male 17.5 mm. Pseudotinea caprina is a highly distinctive species known only from males. Its ventral surface is most similar to those of the two other south-east Brazilian species, P. hemis and P. gagarini, but there are no prominently continuous pale or dark transverse bands on the hind wing, and the fore wing ground colour is predominantly a darker brown. Pseudotinea caprina is instantly recognizable on the dorsal surface by the single white postdiscal patch on the fore wing. The male genitalia are perhaps most similar to P. gagarini, but the right-hand aedeagal cornutus is flat instead of rolled, with shorter more closely spaced serrations, and the left-hand one has fewer, larger and more rounded spines.   
 Pseudotinea caprina superficially resembles Pachythone robusta Lathy (incertae sedis section [four fore wing radial veins]), from Mato Grosso, Brazil, but this species has even distal margins on both wings, with a pointed hind wing, a falcate fore wing apex, and a concave fore wing costa; the white patch on the dorsal fore wing is positioned more distally and slightly closer to the costal margin, and the ventral surface is more uniformly patterned without such large white blotches. The sympatric Lepricornis atricolor Butler (Riodinini), has an identical dorsal wing pattern to P. caprina except for variably prominent interneural white rays at the wing bases, but its ventral pattern is the same as that of the dorsal surface and the distal wing margins are not scalloped.   
 Biology   
 Nothing is known about the biology of this very rare species, but the occurrence of several sympatric species with very similar black and white dorsal wing patterns, including species in the genera Riodina Westwood, Melanis Hübner and Lepricornis C. and R. Felder (all Riodinini) (see d’Abrera, 1994), suggests that it may be involved in a mimetic relationship with these species. Pseudotinea caprina is another south-east Brazil endemic that should be considered vulnerable in conservation terms.   
 Distribution   
This species is currently only known from the Serra do Paranapiacaba region of eastern Paraná state and from central Rio de Janeiro state in south-east Brazil (see figure 14). This distribution suggests that it should also be found in mountainous areas such as the Serra do Mar in intervening São Paulo state and perhaps also southern Minas Gerais state. Within Paraná state it should also be looked for in the Serra Geral further inland, which also extends into northern Santa Catarina state to the south.  
 Specimens examined   
 Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Paineiras (May), 1 W UFP; Paraná, Castro, 2 W BMNH; no locality data, 1 W BMNH.
description: Published as part of HALL, JASON P. W. & CALLAGHAN, CURTIS J., 2003, A revision of the new riodinid butterfly genus Pseudotinea (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae), pp. 821-837 in Journal of Natural History 37 (7) on pages 834-835, DOI: 10.1080/00222930110096771, http://zenodo.org/record/5274385