Xeniades orchamus
Creators: name: Sherer, Alexander
name: Raghuraman, Savitri
name: Nakahara, Shinichi
name: Gallice, Geoffrey
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Hesperiidae
Xeniades
Xeniades orchamus

description: Xeniades orchamus (Cramer, 1777)
(voucher 2022-FLP-IMM-0228) (Table 1, Fig. 1)
Larval instar n-3: Head capsule mostly light brown, with dark brown along epicranial suture, lateral adfrontal lines, and broadly on center of face. One pair of light brown markings close to the epicranial suture above the frons and light brown adfrontal areas. Epicranial notch insignificant. Epicranial suture dark brown and extending over frons. Dark brown coloration present as raised sculpture on lateral areas of head capsule. Except for spiky areas near vertex, entire head capsule with coarse, shallow sculpture. Setae white and numerous. 6 stemmata present, stemma 5 slightly larger than others and closer to stemma 6 than stemma 4. Clypeus translucent orange and labrum translucent white. Body with prothoracic shield visible as black dorsal band. Testes noticeable as two creamy-white spots via semi-translucent dorsally on A6. Integument purple-brown on segments T1–3 and A8–9, solid green A2–6, and fading between colors on A1 and A7. Orange spiracles on T1 and A1–8, with tracheal system visible along spiracles through integument. Subspiracular ridge white, orange to pink below each spiracle. Medium-length dense setae interspersed with longer setae across body. Anal shield dark purple. Legs dark reddish-brown. Prolegs white.
Larval instar n-2: Head capsule similar to previous instar with base color dark yellow and with more extensive dark brown frontally. Adfrontal areas dark brown, no longer light-colored. Setae white and longer than previous instar. Anteclypeus black. Body similar to previous instar but subspiracular ridge faded to translucent white, colors slightly darker, and anal shield black. Testes creamy-white.
Larval instar n-1: Head capsule similar to previous instar with base color orange and previously dark brown areas now black, more solid dark coloration frontally and increasingly intermixed with orange moving outwards. Long, sturdy setae. Clypeus orange and anteclypeus black with translucent cream transverse stripe. Body with integument entirely translucent dark purple, green internally. Bright red coloration surrounding spiracles, extending to the otherwise white subspiracular ridge. Legs light brown. Prolegs pink. Body covered in long white setae. Testes light translucent red.
Larval instar n: Head capsule similar to previous instar but dark reddish brown with wax in dense patches. Mouthparts dark. Setae longer and denser. Body similar to previous instar but with yellow internal structures visible on A5. White wax ventrally on A7–8. A8–9 black dorsally. Pink digestive tract visible inside abdomen dorsally. Testes light translucent red.
Pupa: Head and thorax dark reddish-brown, fading to orange-brown abdomen. Final abdominal segment and cremaster dark reddish-brown. Medium-length orange setae in patches on head and prothorax, with shorter setae on rest of body. Cylindrical cephalic projection, curved ventrally and with orange setae distally. Maxillae separated from body, extending slightly beyond cremaster. Head and thorax dorsally with patches of white wax, concentrated in crevices. Remainder of body with thin waxy coating, slightly less dense on posterior half of body. Cremaster attached to a densely woven silk shelter structure.
description: Published as part of Sherer, Alexander, Raghuraman, Savitri, Nakahara, Shinichi & Gallice, Geoffrey, 2025, Immature stages and host plant records for the skipper butterflies Xeniades orchamus (Cramer, 1777), Dubia dubia (Bell, 1932), and Tricrista canta (Evans, 1955) in the Peruvian Amazon (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae: Hesperiini), pp. 390-404 in Zootaxa 5609 (3) on pages 392-394, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5609.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/15215282