Johnsonita Salazar & Constantino 1995
Creators: name: Bálint, Zsolt
name: Boyer, Pierre
name: Cerdeña, José
name: Larico, Jackie Farfán
name: Brudecka, Jadwiga Lorenc-
name: Prieto, Carlos
name: Pyrcz, Tomasz W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Lycaenidae
Johnsonita

description: The genus Johnsonita
Johnsonita Salazar & Constantino, 1995: 459
(type species: Johnsonita johnsoni by original designation); d’Abrera & Bálint 2001: 195; Bálint 2003: 243; Lamas 2003: 49; Robbins 2004b: 120.
Owda Johnson, Kruse & Kroenlein, 1997: 19
(type species: Thecla auda Hewitson, 1865, by original designation); Bálint 2003: 243 (as a subjective junior synonym of Johnsonita).
Description. FW costa length 12-18 mm; venation typical eumaeine with ten FW veins (Fig. 1a); males usually slightly smaller than females; FW outer margin shorter than costa and anal margin; HW vein Cubitus 2 extending into a spiraled tail (> 3mm), tornus with an extended lobe, often orange and formed by a deeply incurved inner margin; male and female dorsal wing surface basal, medial and postmedial area structurally blue, lighter in males, deeper in females, turning violet, wing outer margin with wide black borders, somewhat wider in females; ventral wing surface ground colour lighter or darker brown, with dark and light submedian, median and postmedian pattern consisting of dashed lines and marks, submargin similarly but more faintly patterned, fringes brown or black (Figs 3–15). Male genitalia typical eumaeine, tegumen robust with a vinculum sclerotized posteriorly and pointed caudally (anticum) in lateral view, uncus robust and divided, gnathos slender and hook shaped with pointed terminus, valva with extremely long and pointed terminus, saccus also robust, aedeagus terminus upturned with two long cornuti. Female genitalia with a long ductus with an extended terminal plate, both divided by a central membranous fissure along their length, bursa ornamented by a pair of fan–shaped signa. All of these genitalia traits show little interspecific variations, consequently male valval and female terminal plate shapes seem to be characteristic (Figs 16–22). Androconia present in various forms (1) in ventral FW medial or postmedial area and appear as black streak, often supported by a wrinkle running from the wing base, taking the shape of a recurrent vein in the cell formed by the anal and cubital veins until the medial area (Fig. 1B), (2) or as a patch along the cubital vein, (3) or in the HW dorsal surface below the costa as a large black postbasal-medial patch often supplemented by another black patch in the FW ventral wing surface along the anal margin (Figs 23–24).
Diagnosis. Superficially Micandra Staudinger, 1888 (type species: Pseudolycaena platyptera C. Felder & R. Felder, 1865, by subsequent designation by Prieto 2011) resembles Johnsonita, but the former is larger (FW costal length> 18 mm), male androconia are on FW dorsal surface discal area, and male FW ventral surface has often an conspicuous blue reflector patch (Fig. 23H), and the female HW vein Cubitus 1 is extended, often ornamented by a short tail. All these lack in Johnsonita (only J. auda male has a faint bright patch). Close relationship of these two genera was expressed by Robbins (2004b), who in his checklist placed the two genera by each other. This can be based not only on the above mentioned similarities, but also the curious wing vein characteristics and genitalia configuration (cf. Johnson et al 1997; Prieto 2011). However, Johnsonita aedeagus possess two conspicuous distal cornuti, while Micandra has a single dentated cornutus (cf. Prieto 2011).
Distribution. Geographical: Transandean (Mesomerica) and Andean (from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, to Bolivia) (see Brown 1993) (Figs 30-32); spatial: known to occur from 600 m (Putumayo, Colombia) to 3400 m.a.s.l. (Tungurahua and Morona Santiago, Ecuador); temporal: recorded from January to December.
Biology. All Johnsonita species are recorded in montane forests of the Andes. Larval host plant was recorded as Eupatorium sp. (in Colombia: Bravo et al. 2009), but this is highly arguable.
Note. Dorsal colour pattern is characteristic in males but females show variation in this respect. This is especially prominent for J. auda where large sample has been available from Venezuela to Peru. Genitalia morphology varies little, but some traits provide quantitative characters which could be promising to study using morphometrics.
description: Published as part of Bálint, Zsolt, Boyer, Pierre, Cerdeña, José, Larico, Jackie Farfán, Brudecka, Jadwiga Lorenc-, Prieto, Carlos & Pyrcz, Tomasz W., 2021, Contributions to the knowledge of Neotropical Lycaenidae: taxonomy of Johnsonita Salazar & Constantino, 1995 with descriptions of seven new species (Theclinae Eumaeini), pp. 11-57 in Zootaxa 4963 (1) on pages 12-13, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4963.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/4711249