Saurona Huertas &amp; Willmott 2023
Creators: name: Espeland, Marianne
name: Nakahara, Shinichi
name: Zacca, Thamara
name: Barbosa, Eduardo P.
name: Huertas, Blanca
name: Marín, Mario A.
name: Lamas, Gerardo
name: Benmesbah, Mohamed
name: Brévignon, Christian
name: Casagrande, Mirna M.
name: Fåhraeus, Christer
name: Grishin, Nick
name: Kawahara, Akito Y.
name: Mielke, Olaf H. H.
name: Miller, Jacqueline Y.
name: Nakamura, Ichiro
name: Navas, Vanessa
name: Patrusky, Brooke
name: Pyrcz, Tomasz W.
name: Richards, Lindsay
name: Tan, Denise
name: Tyler, Stephanie
name: Viloria, Angel
name: Warren, Andrew D.
name: Xiao, Lei
name: Freitas, André V. L.
name: Willmott, Keith R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Saurona

description: <i>Saurona</i> Huertas &amp; Willmott, genus novum. Type species <i> — Euptychia aurigera var. <i>triangula</i> Aurivillius, 1929</i> , by present designation. <b>Zoobank registration</b>: https://zoobank.org/Nomenclatural Acts/25189D52-EE44-4A98-A286-08403155CA6D <b>Systematic placement and diagnosis</b>. <i>Saurona</i> <b>gen.n.</b> is a member of the ‘ <i>Hermeuptychia</i> clade’, in which its type species, <i>Euptychia triangula</i> Aurivillius, 1929, is strongly supported as sister to <i>Hermeuptychia</i> (SH-aLRT = 98.8, UFB = 99). Our results (Figures 5, S 2 and S 3), morphology (Huertas, 2014) and DNA barcodes (C. Fahraeus, unpublished data) support a sister relationship between <i>Saurona triangula</i> <b>comb.n.</b> and the only other described species included here within this new genus, <i>Saurona aurigera</i> <b>comb.n.</b> These two species can be distinguished from all other Euptychiina as follows: (a) a patch of elongate, dark androconial hair-like scales is present along the distal edge of the DHW discal cell (Figure 14a); (b) the HW costa is expanded anteriorly, with concomitant shortening of the HW discal cell and basal migration of the ends of veins Rs and Sc + R1 (Figure 14a); (c) the VFW anal margin where it overlaps with the DHW androconial scales has an elongate patch of pale, sparse, needle-like scales along the basal part of vein 2A, surrounded by shiny white scales; (d) the DFW has an elongate androconial patch of shiny silver greyish scales along the basal half of vein M 2 (Figure 14a). The ventral portion of the anal tube in the male genitalia is weakly sclerotized and covered with minute studs (Figure 15d), a distinctive character shared with the sister genus <i>Hermeuptychia</i> (e.g. Zacca et al., 2021), whereas the slender, upwardly curving brachia differ from the thicker, posterior/ventrally pointing brachia of <i>Hermeuptychia</i> (e.g. Cong &amp; Grishin, 2014; Nakahara, Tan, et al., 2016; Zacca et al., 2021). Both described <i>Saurona</i> <b>gen.n.</b> species also share a distinctive, dense covering of hair-like setae over the uncus. Finally, the configuration of the VHW postdiscal ocelli is almost unique within the subtribe, with the row of circular black ocelli with large central silvery pupils surrounded by orange scaling (Figure 14c,e), superficially similar only to <i>Euptychia ordinata</i> Weymer, 1911 and <i>Euptychia insignis</i> Butler, 1867 (which are placed here in the ‘ <i>Amphidecta</i> clade’). The simple VHW ocelli readily distinguish the two described species from several otherwise somewhat similar species in <i>Argentaria</i> <b>gen.n.</b> The female genitalia of <i>S</i>. <i>triangula</i> <b>comb.n.</b> (Figure 15g <i>–</i> j) have several distinctive characters (described further below), but none that can be considered synapomorphies since they are not shared with a known undescribed species that should be placed in this genus (Huertas et al., in preparation). <b>Etymology</b>. The generic name is based on that of the main antagonist, Sauron, in J. R. R. Tolkien <i>’</i> s novel ‘The Lord of the Rings’. The name alludes to the distinctive fused orange rings that encircle the VHW ocelli, and to avoid unhelpful changes to associated specific names as mandated by the ICZN (Article 31.2, ICZN, 1999), we treat it as a feminine noun in the nominative singular. <b>Description</b> (Figures 14 and 15). Some notable characters include: eyes naked; pterothoracic legs dorsally darker except tips of tarsomeres ringed with pale scales, tibia with two principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally, pair of spurs of similar length at distal end of tibia, first tarsomere with three principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally, remaining tarsomeres with four principal longitudinal rows of spines ventrally. Small Euptychiina (FW length typically 17 <i>–</i> 19 mm). FW and HW compact, HW skewed with costal margin extended anteriorly and distal tips of veins Rs and Sc + R1 shifted basally, and FW anal margin expanded posteriorly (in male). Male DFW with elongate androconial patch of shiny grey scales along the basal half of vein M 2; DHW with patch of elongate androconial hair-like scales at distal edge of discal cell, and associated androconial scales at overlapping anal margin of VFW, as described above. No strong sexual dimorphism in wing pattern: VFW lacking ocelli, VHW with five distinct postdiscal ocelli (and one indistinct, in cell M 1 -Rs), all of similar form, circular, black, with large, single central silvery pupil in each, surrounded by orange scaling. Female with slightly more rounded wings than male but otherwise similar in pattern, except as noted above and in lacking the DHW, VFW and DFW androconial scales. Male eighth abdominal tergite reduced dorsally, leaving a sclerotized strip along anterior edge and broader band along ventral edge (Figure 15a); dense covering of hair-like setae on uncus in two described species, aedeagus straight and lacking cornuti, ventral portion of anal tube weakly sclerotized and covered with minute studs, brachia pointing sharply dorsally of uncus. Female genitalia with eighth tergite complete, intersegmental membrane between seventh and eighth abdominal segments somewhat wrinkled and expandable without a sclerotized plate ventrally, eighth segment with large, posteriorly pointed irregular lateral sclerotized plate fused ventrally with a broad, scoop-like ventrally sclerotized antrum, band of black scales posterior to eighth segment encircling abdomen, base of papilla analis unusually strongly sclerotized, ductus bursae narrow, corpus bursae elongate and with two narrow, elongate signa. <b>Distribution and natural history</b> (Figure 16). <i>Saurona</i> <b>gen.n.</b> is confined to lowland rainforest in the south-western Amazon, where both described species can be found in the same localities. The immature stages and hostplants have not been described. <b>Discussion</b>. Weymer (1911, p. 194, pl. 46 e) described <i>Euptychia aurigera</i> in his ‘Hesione group’ (now <i>Pareuptychia</i>), but also stated that it ‘resembles no other <i>Euptychia</i> ’. His description and figure of the ventral surface are consistent with one another, and the latter shows an attenuated VFW white band and dark brown line separating the white VHW postdiscal band from the orange surrounding the ocelli. These ventral characters are evident in the putative syntype specimen examined at the SMTD, and distinguish the species from the only other described congener. Aurivillius (1929) described <i>Euptychia aurigera</i> var. <i>triangula</i> based on three males from Rio Purus, Hyutanahan (= Hiutanaa ˜) (Brazil, Amazonas), and accurately described several characters that distinguish the species from <i>S</i>. <i>aurigera</i> <b>comb.n.</b> and which are evident in the syntype specimens examined at the RMS and figured by Warren et al. (2022). We selected <i>Euptychia triangula</i> as the type species for this genus since it was the species for which we had most complete DNA sequence data. Neither species was mentioned by Forster (1964) in his generic reorganization of Euptychiina, and Lamas (2004) placed both species in <i>Splendeuptychia</i>, among several superficially similar other species, until their true relationships could be determined. Based on a morphological phylogenetic study, Huertas (2014) found both species to be distantly related to other species then placed in <i>Splendeuptychia</i>. The morphological phylogenetic study of Marín et al. (2017) placed <i>Splendeuptychia triangula</i> as sister to <i>Splendeuptychia ackeryi</i> and <i>Splendeuptychia doxes</i> (both of which are placed here in <i>Nhambikuara</i>), but without strong support, and this placement may have resulted from superficial similarity in ventral wing pattern elements. Otherwise, we do not know of any morphological characters that strongly support an alternative hypothesis of relationships from that proposed in this paper on the basis of molecular data, or the reasonable placement of the two species included here within <i>Saurona</i> <b>gen.n.</b> in any described genus. In our analysis the branch separating <i>Saurona</i> <b>gen.n.</b> from <i>Hermeuptychia</i> is much longer than any within either genus, and the two genera otherwise share no obvious diagnostic morphological or ecological characters. <i>Saurona</i> Huertas &amp; Willmott, <b>gen.n.</b> <i>aurigera</i> (Weymer, [1911]), <b>comb.n.</b>, was <i>Splendeuptychia</i> <i>triangula</i> (Aurivillius, 1929), <b>comb.n.</b>, was <i>Splendeuptychia</i>
description: Published as part of <i>Espeland, Marianne, Nakahara, Shinichi, Zacca, Thamara, Barbosa, Eduardo P., Huertas, Blanca, Marín, Mario A., Lamas, Gerardo, Benmesbah, Mohamed, Brévignon, Christian, Casagrande, Mirna M., Fåhraeus, Christer, Grishin, Nick, Kawahara, Akito Y., Mielke, Olaf H. H., Miller, Jacqueline Y., Nakamura, Ichiro, Navas, Vanessa, Patrusky, Brooke, Pyrcz, Tomasz W., Richards, Lindsay, Tan, Denise, Tyler, Stephanie, Viloria, Angel, Warren, Andrew D., Xiao, Lei, Freitas, André V. L. &amp; Willmott, Keith R., 2023, Combining target enrichment and Sanger sequencing data to clarify the systematics of the diverse Neotropical butterfly subtribe Euptychiina (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae), pp. 1-73 in Zoological Research 2023</i> on pages 22-58, DOI: 10.1111/syen.12590, http://zenodo.org/record/7909395
description: {"references": ["Aurivillius, P. O. C. (1929) Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der schwedischen Entomologischen Reisen des Herrn Dr. A. Roman in Amazonas 1914 - 1915 und 1923 - 1924. 13. Rhopalocera. Entomologisk Tidskrift, 50, 153 - 168.", "Huertas, B. (2014) Systematics of the genus Splendeuptychia (Forster, 1964) and implications of taxonomy in conservation assessments. Chapter 4. In Evaluating the conservation status of Neotropical butterflies and the impact of systematics on threat assessments (PhD thesis). University College London.", "Zacca, T., Casagrande, M. M., Mielke, O. H. H., Huertas, B., Freitas, A. V. L., Marn, M. A. et al. (2021) A new euptychiine butterfly species from South Brazil and taxonomic rearrangements for Taydebis Freitas, 2013 and Hermeuptychia Forster, 1964 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Zootaxa, 5023, 555 - 570.", "Cong, Q. &amp; Grishin, N. V. (2014) A new Hermeuptychia (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) is sympatric and synchronic with H. sosybius in southeast US coastal plains, while another new Hermeuptychia species - not hermes - inhabits South Texas and Northeast Mexico. ZooKeys, 379, 43 - 91.", "Weymer, G. (1911) 4. Familie: Satyridae. In: Seitz, A. (Ed.) Die Gross- Schmetterlinge der Erde. Stuttgart: A. Kernen, pp. 173 - 280.", "Butler, A. G. (1867) Descriptions of some new species of Satyridae belonging to the genus Euptychia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1867, 104 - 110.", "Warren, A. D., Davis, K., Stangeland, M., Pelham, J. &amp; Grishin, N. V. (2022) Butterflies of America [WWW document]. Available from: http: // butterfliesofamerica. com [Accessed 25 th June 2022]", "Forster, W. (1964) Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Insektenfauna Boliviens XIX. Lepidoptera III. Satyridae. Veroffentlichungen der Zoologischen Staatssammlung Munchen, 8, 51 - 188.", "Lamas, G. (2004) Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4 A Hesperioidea - Papilionoidea. Gainesville: Scientific Publishers / Association of Tropical Lepidoptera, p. 439.", "Marin, M. A., Pena, C., Uribe, S. I. &amp; Freitas, A. V. L. (2017) Morphology agrees with molecular data: phylogenetic affinities of Euptychiina butterflies (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Systematic Entomology, 42, 768 - 785."]}