Manerebia ronda Pyrcz & Boyer 2021, n. sp.
Creators: name: Mahecha-J, Oscar
name: Florczyk, Klaudia
name: Willmott, Keith
name: Cerdeña, José
name: Zubek, Anna
name: Boyer, Pierre
name: Farfán, Jackie
name: Lachowska-Cierlik, Dorota
name: Pyrcz, Tomasz W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Manerebia
Manerebia ronda

description: Manerebia ronda Pyrcz & Boyer, n. sp.
(Figs. 1, 7, 9, 10)
Type locality. Peru, Cajamarca, NE Bambamarca, Laguna Salahuindo
Diagnosis. This species superficially resembles a number of congeners, including M. inderena (Adams, 1986), M. leaena (Hewitson, 1861), M. undulata Pyrcz & Hall, 2006 and M. germaniae, all of which have wide HWV yellow median bands, but only some of them do not have any ventral ocelli, in particular M. inderena leaeniva Pyrcz & Willmott, 2006, M. inderena similis Pyrcz & Willmott, 2006, and M. germaniae. The last species has a series of minute HWV submarginal yellowish dots, absent in M. ronda. The most similar taxon in colour pattern is M. inderena similis (Fig. 10B), whose HWV submarginal line is smooth and parallel to the outer margin, as opposed to the more undulating line in M. ronda n. sp. In terms of male genitalia morphology, the most similar species is M. pauperata n. stat., which differs in the larger tegumen which is apparent in lateral view, and thinner subuncus (Fig. 10A, E). The nominate subspecies of M. ronda n. sp. differs from M. ronda amplia n. ssp. by the more prominent teeth on the apical part of the valva (Fig. 10A, C).
Description. MALE (Fig. 1A): Head: eyes chocolate brown, naked, lustrous; labial palpi two times length of head, covered with black hair-like scales, longer ventrally, and some sparse yellow scales; antennae slender, 2/5 th length of costa, mostly naked, dorsally brown, ventrally milky white, club formed gradually. Thorax: black, naked; legs with femur covered with chestnut scales, tibia and tarsus with sandy yellow scales. Wings: FW length 18–19 mm, mean: 18.4 mm, n=7; FWD uniform chocolate brown, lustrous, with a barely noticeable submarginal darker smooth line parallel to distal margin. HWD with long hair-like scales in median half, uniform chocolate brown, with a barely noticeable undulating darker submarginal line and yellow median band slightly translucent from venter. FWV dark brown, paler along costal and particularly distal margin due to thin overcast of whitish scales, with a well-marked blackish-brown, undulating and rather irregular submarginal line, a narrow barely visible marginal line, and a faint, dark brown straight, postdiscal line. HWV dark brown, lighter along distal margin where dusted with thin whitish scales, with a zigzagging dark brown submarginal line, a barely visible, narrow marginal line, and a wide, straight, yellow (slightly more intensely coloured towards anal margin) median band, of nearly same width throughout, and a hardly visible arched black discal line angled at almost 90°. Abdomen: Covered with dense, mostly brown scales dorsally and laterally, and sparse golden brown scales ventrally. Genitalia (Fig. 7A): Uncus arched and 1.5 times longer than tegumen shoulder, gnathos half-length of uncus, strongly uplifted with a short apex; pedunculus with a massive base and apex curved downwards; saccus short, bulbous; valva with a massive basal half ending in massive mid-dorsal process terminated by several short teeth, and a narrow apical half with a dorsal crest made up of five prominent teeth; aedeagus sinuate, shorter than valva. FEMALE (Fig. 1B): Sexual dimorphism marginal, female slightly lighter and duller brown on both upper and venter. Its HWV median band is sandy yellow. Genitalia (Fig. 9A): Anal papillae prominent, covered with rather sparse setae of varying length, with a strongly sclerotized basal plate, projecting basally and dorsally into short, sharp apophysis-like tips; membrane below papillae with a moderately sclerotized flange, postvaginal lamella sclerotized produced into two prominent lateral, folded flaps with smooth edges; antevaginal lamella slightly sclerotized, pocket-like; antrum strongly sclerotized with two protruberances; ductus bursae wide and short, opening gradually into a large, oval corpus bursae, with two parallel wide, dentate signa, running close to each other in ventral position extending over half of bursa length.
Molecular data. BI (Fig. 12) and ML (Fig. 13) trees, as well as species-delimitation methods (Figs. 14, 15) and genetic distances (Sumplementary material 2) do not support the separate specific status of M. ronda n. sp., which is placed within the Manerebia pauperata n. stat. clade with zero or close to zero genetic distance.
Type material: Holotype ♂: Peru, Cajamarca, NE Bambamarca, Laguna Salahuindo, S 06°36’897/ W78°26’159, 2700–2750 m, 11.vi.2018, T. Pyrcz leg., CEPUJ (to be deposited in MUSM); Paratypes (17 ♂ and 2 ♀:): 7 ♂: same data as the holotype, CEPUJ; 3 ♂: Cajamarca, ouest de Laguna Salahuindo, nord Bambamarca, S 06°36'897 W78°26'159, 2700 m, 11.vi.2018, P. Boyer leg., PBF; 7 ♂ and 2 ♀: Cajamarca, Bambamarca, La Ramada, 06º36’53’’S / 78º26’09’W, 11.vi.2018. 2715 m, leg. J. Cerdeña and J. Farfán, MUSA.
Etymology. This species is named for a local political institution, a peasant patrol or meeting of local authorities in rural Peru, which was particularly active in the Bambamarca area during the insurgency of the Sendero Luminoso in the 1980s. It is treated as a feminine noun in apposition.
Remarks. This species is externally most similar to M. inderena mirena but its male genitalia and COI barcode data (Figs. 12, 13, 14, 15) indicate its close affinities to M. pauperata n. stat. (Fig. 10E), which occurs at lower elevations and is externally markedly different, characterized by much large size, no HWV median yellow band, and large submarginal ocelli. Therefore, the two are considered as specifically distinct. Another species that has similar genitalia and somewhat similar colour patterns is M. germaniae, which occurs throughout Ecuador and Colombia, which can be recognized by the shorter distance between the base of the valva and the tip of the dorsal process, and by the shorter teeth on the apical part of the valva, as well as by the presence of HWV submarginal yellow dots, which are totally lacking in M. ronda n. sp.
So far, the nominate subspecies of M. ronda n. sp. has been collected only in the north-central part of the department of Cajamarca, NW of Bambamarca, within the watersheds of western tributaries of the Río Marañón (Fig. 16).
description: Published as part of Mahecha-J, Oscar, Florczyk, Klaudia, Willmott, Keith, Cerdeña, José, Zubek, Anna, Boyer, Pierre, Farfán, Jackie, Lachowska-Cierlik, Dorota & Pyrcz, Tomasz W., 2021, Solving the cryptic diversity of the genus Manerebia Staudinger in northern Peru description of new species and considerations on the biogeographical role of the Huancabamba Deflection (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae: Pronophilina), pp. 201-237 in Zootaxa 5072 (3) on pages 205-206, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5072.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5744549