Nivaliodes viracocha Fahraeus & Pyrcz 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Pyrcz, Tomasz
name: Mahecha-J., Oscar
name: Boyer, Pierre
name: Lachowska-Cielik, Dorota
name: Cerdeña, Jose
name: Farfán, Jackie
name: Garlacz, Rafał
name: Lorenc-Brudecka, Jadwiga
name: Bálint, Zsolt
name: Fåhraeus, Christer
name: Zając-Garlacz, Kamila S.
name: Espeland, Marianne
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Mecoptera
Boreidae
Nivaliodes
Nivaliodes viracocha

description: Nivaliodes viracocha Fåhraeus & Pyrcz sp. nov.
Nivaliodes viracocha Fåhraeus & Pyrcz: LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank. org:act: 7F1145FF-2DBC-4F82-9051-2E245EFB7CC9
Diagnosis
Externally, this species closely resembles its congeners, V. puriq, from which it differs by the lighter upperside ground colour, and even more closely N. negrobueno, especially when it comes to size, with both being slightly larger than N. puriq, with more elongated wings. In contrast, N. puriq and N. viracocha have a darker, blackish brown HWV ground colour and marginally larger FW costal white patch. In N. viracocha the whitish HWV midcostal streak is nearly obsolete, and strongly produced basally along the vein M2.
Description: male (Fig. 4E, F)
Head: Eyes dark chocolate brown, densely hairy, with a milky white collar; palpi two times the length of head, ventrally covered with long, dorsally short, blackish brown hairy scales, and laterally with short, milky white scales; frons with a tuft of long, blackish brown hair; antennae reaching two-fifths the length of costa, slender, dark brown, mostly naked, with a club formed gradually, composed of 11 flagellomeres, flattened dorsoventrally; thorax black, dorsally covered with short and sparse, golden brown hairy scales; mesothoracix legs covered with grey scales; FW length (25.0– 26.5 mm, mean: 25.7 mm, N = 9), with a subacute apex and slightly convex outer margin and with long, intermittent milky white and black fringes; upperside blackish brown, lustrous, with a white costal patch one-third of the way from distal end of discal cell and apex, spreading over four spaces, costa, R4 + 5–M1, and M2–M3 produced basally in the middle, and a faint, barely visible median patch in CuA1–CuA2, no scent patch; underside dull, blackish brown, with the white costal patch as on the upperside and the median patch obsolete, sprinkled with white scales in the subapical and apical area, and with a faint, blackish submarginal line. HW oval, with an undulating outer margin and intermittently grey and whitish fringes; HWD uniform blackish brown, lustrous; HWV ground colour blackish brown, with a heavy whitish ripple pattern covering the entire wing surface without producing any conspicuous pattern except for a zigzagging black submarginal line; the only well-marked pattern is an elongated, white midcostal band extending to vein M2, strongly produced basally along vein M1. Abdomen is covered dorsally and laterally with thick black scales and ventrally with chestnut scales.
Genitalia (Fig. 5C): Tegumen with a flat dorsum; uncus massive, as long as the dorsum of tegumen, with a wide base, aligned with tegumen, with a blunt tip; subunci approximately one-third the length of uncus, relatively stout; pedunculus short, with a blunt tip; saccus wide and relatively deep; valvae as long as tegumen + valva, shorter, with a more strongly humped, serrated dorsum than in other two congeners and a blunt apex; aedeagus short, wide, and tubular, compressed and spatulate in the proximal area, with an acute, bifurcated tip.
Description: female (Fig. 4G, H)
FW length 28 mm, considerably lighter coloured on both the upper- and underside, chestnut, with more prominent FW white markings, otherwise similar.
Genitalia (Fig. 6C): Papillae anales prominent, covered with long but sparse hair; postvaginal lamella strongly sclerotized, with a smooth surface, wide, enclosing a spacious antrum; ductus bursae wide, mildly sclerotized, gradually opening into a large, pear-like corpus bursae, with a smooth surface, no apparent signa.
Type material
Holotype ♂: Perú, Ayacucho, Viracochán, −12.5685 −74.3089, 4180 m, 1–30 June 2022, C. Fåhraeus and local collectors leg., FILS [to be deposited in MUSM].
Paratypes: Eight (seven ♂ and one ♀): same data, seven FILS, one CEP-UJ.
Etymology
This species is named after its type locality, Viracochán, and incidentally is an allusion to Wiraqucha, the chief creator deity of the pre-Inca and Inca mythology.
Distribution
This species is known only from its type locality above the locality of Viracochán in the department of Ayacucho (Fig. 10). It occurs in open puna habitats.
Range of temperature
It has been determined that N. negrobueno has in a temperature range of 5.9°C–7.4°C, whereas N. puriq and N. viracocha have a temperature range of 12.9°C–14.5°C and 10.4°C–11.2°C, respectively. In comparison, a species from the sister genus, Pherepedaliodes naevia, has a higher temperature range of 16.8°C–18.5°C (Fig. 9), which is significantly higher than the optimal temperature ranges observed in all Nivaliodes species, particularly N. negrobueno.
description: Published as part of Pyrcz, Tomasz, Mahecha-J., Oscar, Boyer, Pierre, Lachowska-Cielik, Dorota, Cerdeña, Jose, Farfán, Jackie, Garlacz, Rafał, Lorenc-Brudecka, Jadwiga, Bálint, Zsolt, Fåhraeus, Christer, Zając-Garlacz, Kamila S. & Espeland, Marianne, 2024, A snow-dwelling tropical butterfly? An unprecedented discovery of a new genus of the Pedaliodes clade in an extreme, high-altitude Andean environment (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), pp. 1-20 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202 (2) on pages 14-17, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae112, http://zenodo.org/record/14502699