Zaretis syene
Creators: name: Dias, Fernando Maia Silva
name: Janzen, Daniel
name: Hallwachs, Winnie
name: Chacón, Isidro
name: Willmott, Keith
name: Ortiz-Acevedo, Elena
name: Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik
name: Casagrande, Mirna Martins
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Zaretis
Zaretis syene

description: ZARETIS SYENE (HEWITSON, 1856)
(FIGS 9E, F, 15F, 19; SUPPORTING INFORMATION, APPENDIX S6)
Type material
Male holotype of Siderone syene Hewitson, 1856 with the following labels: / Type/ SYN-TYPE/ B.M. TYPE No. Rh 10380 Siderone syene [#f] #m Hew[itson]./ N. Granada. Hewitson Coll. 79-69 Siderone syrene [sic], 2./ (NHMUK).
Diagnosis
Zaretis syene is highly distinctive and can be distinguished easily from all other species of Zaretis by the wing shape, coloration and male genitalia (Figs 9E, F, 15F). This species is probably elevationally allopatric with respect to other species of the genus. It can be distinguished from all species of the genus by the FW apex being strongly falcate, wide and rounded; by the FW outer margin being strongly crenulated at M 3, CuA 1 and CuA 2; by the HW apex emarginated at Sc–R–Rs, and HW outer margin slightly projected at Rs; and by the HW tornal projection at 2A being strongly developed. The wing pattern is typical of the genus, but the upperside of the wings has an orange ground colour, including the submarginal and marginal areas, and well-developed dark brown markings; the pattern is obscured by a variable dark brown suffusion along the outer margin, particularly on the HWD; wing underside homogeneously brown in all areas, bands and umbra dark brown; male genitalia relatively larger when compared with other species; projection between the costa and the harpe weak, similar to species of Siderone and Phantos gen. nov.
Discussion
Siderone syene Hewitson, 1856 is a distinctive and rare species, described based on an unstated number of specimens from Nueva Granada, i.e. Colombia. However, the wording of the description clearly implies that the description of S. syene Hewitson, 1856 was based on single specimen, thought to be a female by Hewitson (1856). The true sex of Hewitson’s specimen was revealed only many years later by Gabriel (1927); as far as we know, females of this species are still unknown. The holotype is illustrated by Warren et al. (2016) and is deposited in the NHMUK type collection. Salazar (1995) indicated the presence of this species on all three Colombian cordilleras, regarding the occurrence of Z. syene as an indicator of well-preserved humid forests in Colombia.
Distribution
Restricted to premontane cloud forests from 1000 to 2500 m in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru (Fig. 19). The records for Brazil provided by Comstock (1961) and label data of specimens at the USNM are certainly mistaken.
Examined material
See Supporting Information, Appendix S1.
description: Published as part of Dias, Fernando Maia Silva, Janzen, Daniel, Hallwachs, Winnie, Chacón, Isidro, Willmott, Keith, Ortiz-Acevedo, Elena, Mielke, Olaf Hermann Hendrik & Casagrande, Mirna Martins, 2019, DNA barcodes uncover hidden taxonomic diversity behind the variable wing patterns in the Neotropical butterfly genus Zaretis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Charaxinae), pp. 132-192 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 185 on page 165