Heteropsis antahala
Creators: name: C, Lees David
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Heteropsis
Heteropsis antahala

description: Heteropsis antahala group (subgenera Masoura and Admiratio Hemming, 1964)
A new species is described here in the Ht. antahala group, and so it is convenient to characterise its nominal species. The LT ♂ of Mycalesis antahala Ward, 1872 is here designated as the specimen (Fig. 2 F) bearing data “ Lectotype | antahala Ward [in pencil]|Plate 12 Upperside Underside|Ex Coll. CHRIS WARD| Ex Oberthür Coll. Brit. Mus. 1927-3.|P.E.L. Viette det. 1968 Mycalesis antahala LECTOTYPE | SYNTYPE of Mycalesis antahala Ward |BMNH(E) # 672567”; a second ♂ becomes PLT (neither bear a locality label, but the type locality is Madagascar; the LT measures 46.5 mm total span, not quite “two inches”). This group of mycalesines endemic to Madagascar now should include the crenate-HW Admiratio Hemming, 1964 as well as the more strongly HWtailed mycalesines traditionally placed in the subgenus Masoura Hemming 1964 (see below). Here, the status of Ht. alaokola (Oberthür, 1916) is reassessed, and this is germane to new descriptions. A few of the species in the Ht. antahala group (Ht. ankoma (Mabille, 1878), Ht. alaokola, Ht. mabillei (Butler, 1879), and the species described below) are hard to distinguish on the basis of wing pattern alone, while their genitalia are quite distinctive in most cases, but they are nevertheless extremely different in appearance to that of Ht. paradoxa. The last species might be inferred to exhibit miniaturisation and possibly simplification of the ♂ genitalia. The saccus tip to valve tip distance is about 1.9 mm as opposed to 3–4 mm in Ht. antahala group; see also Ht. subsimilis group, in respect of possible breakdown in pre-mating isolating system. It may be necessary to inspect androconial features of ♂♂ closely to assist in identification. This group are canopy specialists attracted to ripe fruit as adults (sometimes feeding on fruit in situ, sometimes descending to the ground) and probably all are associated with forest bamboos and include at least one species with gregarious larvae (C. Kremen, pers. comm.) and another (Ht. antahala) observed to roost gregariously as adults (Lees, 1997). The ♂♂ indulge in vigorous hilltopping behaviour on ridgetops, sitting atop bushes just like Ht. drepana, and making canopy chases. Unfortunately there are as yet no biological observations on the large and obvious monomorphic Mylothris mimic, Ht. masoura; its female is one of the largest mycalesines globally (around 37 mm fwl). ♂♂ and ♀♀ are generally phenotypically similar except in size, but the species Ht. antahala exhibits a great deal of polymorphism in both sexes and on both wing surfaces. The Ht. antahala group occurs from sea level up to montane elevations of around 2050 m, and Ht. antahala is distributed also in the west and southwest as far as the ‘sacred’ forest of Analavelona.
Molecular data now provide good support for monophyly of Ht. paradoxa and four sampled members of the Ht. antahala group: Aduse-Poku et al., 2015, Fig. 1; which was submarginally supported (pp=0.91) for the two exemplars in Kodandaramaiah et al., 2010). A few morphological characters also supported this, notably (1) the presence of a brush emanating from near the base of space CuA 2 in the ♂ HW (Lees, 1997: 76) and overlying at least, vein 1A, a character which is only sporadically seen elsewhere, e.g. in the African ‘ Heteropsis ’ peitho (Plötz, 1880) group and in Ht. drepana and (2) the ocelli in hwv space M2, CuA1 and particularly CuA2, where the ventral pattern is pronounced (i.e. not in Ht. masoura, but in H. paradoxa), are usually shifted markedly inward relative to brown Sml, along with a weak to strong proximad inflection of the HWV Mb, particularly in space-CuA2 towards the base of the cell. HW strongly crenate to tailed. The FWD tends to be much darker costad, extremely so in Ht. paradoxa, except in Ht. masoura, which has the upper surface suffused with white. This FWD trend can also be seen in ♀♀ of some Heteropsis (e.g. Ht. andravahana stat. rev.), but not in the ♂♂; in some other species, darker suffusion is concentrated towards the apex in either sex, rather than the costa. The wing pattern of Ht. paradoxa can be interpreted as an extreme ocellus reduction/loss in space CuA1, combined with loss of melanism in the tergad area of the FW (rather than expansion of the white pupil), and adaptation to resting on lichen covered tree trunks and a mid-high canopy lifestyle. It is stated that this clade is specialised to feed on bamboos (Lees 1997: 137), but there are no published life histories.
description: Published as part of C, Lees David, 2016, Heteropsis (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae: Satyrini: Mycalesina): 19 new species from Madagascar and interim revision, pp. 1-97 in Zootaxa 4118 (1) on pages 14-15, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4118.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/264597