Agojie rupicola Zacca & Cordeiro & Gonella 2023, gen. et sp. nov.
Creators: name: Zacca, Thamara
name: Cordeiro, Danilo Pacheco
name: Gonella, Paulo Minatel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Agojie
Agojie rupicola

description: Agojie rupicola Zacca, gen. et sp. nov.
(Figs 2–7)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: C13CC777-B3C0-4B95-9DD8-7A74D72D9512
Type specimens (Figs 2). Holotype male with the following labels (separated by transverse bars): /HOLOTYPUS/ BRASIL, Minas Gerais, Conselheiro Pena, Pedra da Antena, 1237m, 19°20’46”S 41°33’0”W, 19.VIII.2020, D. P. Cordeiro leg. / MN-LEP 0004962 / Holotypus Agojie rupicola Zacca det. 2022/. Deposited at MNRJ.
Paratypes (17 specimens)— 1 male, BRASIL, Minas Gerais, Conselheiro Pena, Serra do Padre Ângelo, Pico Bela Adormecida, 1400m, 19°19’08.9”S 41°34’43.9”W, 21.VIII.2020, D. P. Cordeiro leg. (MN-LEP 0004620); 2 males, BRASIL, Minas Gerais, Conselheiro Pena, Serra do Padre Ângelo, 1° platô (acampamento), 900–1300m, 19°18’45.9”S 41°34’38.1”W, 04. V.2021, D. P. Cordeiro leg. (MN-LEP 0004963, MN-LEP 0004964); 1 male, BRASIL, Minas Gerais, Conselheiro Pena, Serra do Parado, 850–980m, 19°24’00.15”S 41°33’04.76”W, 27.II.2021, D. P. Cordeiro leg. (MN-LEP 0004618); 6 males, BRASIL, Minas Gerais, Santa Rita do Itueto, Trilha Pedra de Santa Rita, 700m, 19°22’34”S 41°22’04”W, 06. V.2021, D. P. Cordeiro leg. (MN-LEP 0004619, MN-LEP 0004617, MN-LEP 0004621, MN-LEP 0004961 *; MN-LEP 0004965 *, MN-LEP 0004966); 7 males, BRASIL, Minas Gerais, Santa Rita do Itueto, Trilha Pedra de Santa Rita, 700m, 19°22’34”S 41°22’04”W, 13.X.2022, D. P. Cordeiro leg. (MBML-INV 5280–5286).
Etymology. The specific name is an allusion to the habitat where the species occurs, campos rupestres and granitic inselbergs. It is formed by the combination of the Latin words rupi (= rocks) and cola (= inhabitant).
Vernacular name: Borboleta-guerreira-das-pedras (Portuguese) / Rock warrior satyr (English)
Diagnosis. Compared with other Euptychiina, this species is easily recognized by the following set of characters: reddish brown wing on ventral forewing, irregular shape of the median and submedian lines on ventral hindwing together with the monopupillated ocelli in M 1 -M 2 and CuA 1 -CuA 2, and three small bipupillated ocelli in Sc+R 1 -M 1, M 2 -M 3 and M 3 -CuA 1 (Fig. 2). It also has a unique shape of gnathos and cornutus (Fig. 5) among other euptychiine species.
Description. Eyes brown and glabrous. Frons with short light brown scales mixed with brown elongated scales (Fig. 3a). Antennae clavate (Fig. 3b), tricarinate, brown with sparse whitish scales mid-ventrally located in each flagellomere except in the glabrous apex (Fig. 3b); 36 flagellomeres with ventral carina from the 17 th flagellomere to the apex (N = 5). Labial palpi with mixed creamy, brown, and greyish scales; third segment almost the same length as the first with short scales. Thorax covered by short light brown scales mixed with brown elongated scales. Legs brown, with spines ventrally on tarsus and tibia, pair of tibial spurs at distal end of tibia. Abdomen brown in dorsal view, lighter in ventral view, with the sclerotized portion of the eight tergite reduced; androconial black elongated scales on the distal region (Fig. 5b).
Wings size, shape, color, venation and variation (Figs 2 and 4). Average size of the forewings of the males is 15–18 mm (PT; HT = 16 mm). FW subtriangle and HW rounded. DFW and DHW entirely brown. VFW reddish brown with dark brown median, submedian, submarginal and marginal lines with a monopupilled ocelli in M 1 -M 2 (Fig. 2). VHW brown with dark brown and large irregular median and submedian lines, slight irregular submarginal line, straight marginal line with two large monopupilled ocelli in M 1 -M 2 and CuA 1 -CuA 2, and three small bipupilled ocelli in Sc+R 1 -M 1, M 2 -M 3 and M 3 -CuA 1 (Fig. 2). Wing venation as in Figure 4.
Male genitalia (Fig. 5). Tegumen rectangular and projected posteriorly in lateral view, with a median concavity posteriorly in dorsal view. Uncus twice longer than tegumen, slightly curved downwards at the apex in lateral view, dorsally ovoid from the mid region to apex. Gnathos half-length of the uncus, robust and with ventral projections in lateral view. Combination of the ventral arms of tegumen and dorsal arms of saccus sinuous. Appendices angulares short. Anterior projection of saccus as longer as gnathos, cylindrical and not dilated in dorsal view. Fultura inferior like a thin stripe. Valva elongated, covered by long hairy-like setae latero-ventrally, and short ones at the inner side, costa developed, apex rounded and serrated. Aedeagus as long as the valva, cylindrical, with both anterior and posterior regions curved upwards, anterior region digitiform, posterior region twice longer than anterior region with bipartite apex in dorsal view, distal opening ventral and the same length as the proximal opening. Vesica with an elongated cornutus.
Female. Unknown.
Ecology, distribution, and conservation (Figs. 1, 6, 7). Agojie rupicola gen. et sp. nov. was collected in February, May, August, and October, but it is very likely to be a multivoltine species as other euptychiine butterflies. So far, the species is endemic to the east mountains of Minas Gerais (municipalities of Conselheiro Pena and Santa Rita do Itueto), southeast Brazil (Fig. 6). In the region, Agojie rupicola gen. et sp. nov. was found between 700–1400 m of elevation and observed very active, flying over the exposed rock in the inselberg Pedra de Santa Rita between islands of bromeliads and other rupicolous vegetation (Fig. 1e–f). The species was found on mountains of both granitic and quartzitic rock, each harboring different vegetation compositions (lowland inselberg and campo rupestre, respectively), but sharing the presence of exposed rock and the predominance of herbs and shrubs. These mountains were once inserted in a matrix of seasonal forests of the Atlantic Forest domain but are now mainly surrounded by pastures and plantations (Fig. 7), which results in several pressures for these remnant areas of native vegetation and associated fauna.
The main pressure for the species is the occurrence of anthropogenic large-scale wildfires during the dry season which has been locally changing the composition of the vegetation and benefiting the dominance of invasive grass and fern species (Gonella et al. 2015; Couto et al. 2023). Such alteration of abundance and composition of the native grassland vegetation changes negatively the quality of the habitat, possibly impacting the population of the host and feeding plants and, therefore, the population of A. rupicola gen. et sp. nov.. As an example, the subpopulation at Pico da Bela Adormecida was affected by an extensive criminal fire in September/ October 2020, which consumed most of the natural grassland and also affected small forest remnants (Fig. 7). After the fire, it was observed the expansion of areas invaded by molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora P. Beauv.) and bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum (L.)) Kuhn, with a reduction in the abundance of native plants, which are slower in recovering from that fire event. Considering the collecting points, the estimated value for EOO is 100.263 km 2 and the AOO is 20 km 2, which combined with the reduced number of localities (less than 5) in which the species is known to occur, and the observed continuing decline of the quality of the habitat, we recommend that A. rupicola gen. et sp. nov. should be formally assessed as Endangered based on criteria B1+2(a,biii) of IUCN (2012). We cannot disregard the pressure of uncontrolled tourism, which can also facilitate fires and expand the area affected by invasive species, as the only protected area with its occurrence is the Área de Proteç„o Ambiental de Santa Rita, but this protected area has no management plan or regulation of visitation.
Hostplant and immature stages. Unknown.
description: Published as part of Zacca, Thamara, Cordeiro, Danilo Pacheco & Gonella, Paulo Minatel, 2023, A new genus and endangered species of euptychiine butterfly from isolated mountains in southeastern Brazil (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), pp. 83-93 in Zootaxa 5346 (1) on pages 86-90, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5346.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/8353073