Ocaria cinerea
Creators: name: Faynel, Christophe
name: Busby, Robert C.
name: Dolibaina, Diego R.
name: Huertas, Blanca
name: Fåhraeus, Christer
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Lycaenidae
Ocaria
Ocaria cinerea

description: Ocaria cinerea (Lathy)
(Figures 1, 6–7, 16, 22, 26, 31, 35)
Diagnosis. Ocaria cinerea is characterized by the following: (1) DFW blue covering most of the inner margin in males; (2) VFW white suffusion extending to CuA 1, often to CuA 2; (3) VHW light-blue line in CuA 2 –2A displaced downward; (4) VHW cells M 2 –CuA 1 and CuA 1 –CuA 2 with sparse submarginal white scales between postmedian line and distal margin; and (5) VHW cubital spot either a tiny black mark or absent (Fig. 16).
Type Material. The description of Thecla cinerea Lathy was based on a single male [holotype] (Fig. 6), from Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, deposited at the MNHN with the following labels: Thecla ♀ undulata Hew. St. Cath. // Thecla ♂ cinerea, Lathy spec[imen]. Typicum // MNHN, Paris EL84502 // NHM -B. Huertas Prél. Tissu 23.2.2024 ADN-EL84502.
Distribution. This species is an endemic lowland Atlantic Forest only found in the eastern areas of the southern Brazilian states, from Rio de Janeiro to Rio Grande do Sul (Fig. 31).
Remarks. Despite its restricted distribution, the name has been misused to a similar and closely allied species endemic to the tropical eastern foothills of the Andes (d’Abrera 1995, Robbins 2004a, Lamas et al. 2021). Morphological and DNA evidence confirm there are two distinct taxa, with the widespread Andean species described below as O. delphinae sp. nov.
The label transcribed above on the holotype of O. cinerea is very peculiar. It identifies the male holotype as a female of Thecla undulata Hewitson (currently in Brevianta K. Johnson, Kruse & Kroenlein) and lists the locality “St. Cath.”, likely referring to Santa Catarina state, Brazil. However, the holotype is unequivocally male, exhibits no resemblance to B. undulata, and, according to the original description, was collected in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In his comprehensive review of the type material of Neotropical Lycaenidae at the MNHN, Johnson (1991) did not mention this label. Instead, he reported a label associated with the type of Thecla cinerea bearing the text “Rio Grande”, which is no longer associated with the holotype. The holotype specimen was photographed with this label in a complementary work on the MNHN type material (Faynel & Bálint 2004), but the authors didn’t detect the problem. We conclude that the ‘peculiar’ label most likely was mixed with that of another specimen.
Natural history. There is little information on natural behavior. Males from Joinville were collected on a lowelevation summit known as Serrinha, suggesting they were hilltoping, a trait observed in other species of Ocaria.
Material examined. BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro. 1♀, Petrópolis, Morro da Independência, 900m, 31.viii.1936, P. Gagarin leg., DZ62.460 (DZUP). Santa Catarina. 1♂, Joinville, 23.xi.1941, DZ62.457 (DZUP); 1♂, same locality, 3.x.1967, H. Miers leg., AMC379 (AMC); 1♂, same locality, Serrinha, 200m, 4.v.1978, O. Mielke & H. Miers leg., DZ62.455 (DZUP); 1♀, same locality, 2.ix.1982, O. Mielke leg. DZ62.458, illustrated on Fig. 7 (DZUP); 1♂, same locality, 20.iii.2010, O. Mielke & G. Moreira leg., DZ 62.454* (DZUP); 3♂, same locality, 01.xi.2017 (x2), 17.xii.2017, Rank leg., DZ62.461*, DZ62.462, DZ62.463* (DZUP); 1♀, São Bento do Sul, 10.v.1975, DZ62.459 (DZUP); 1♀, same locality, 600m, 24.ii.1971, DZ62.456 (DZUP); 2♂, same locality, 830m, 1.iii.2005, CF-LYC-1697* & CF-LYC-1710* (CF); 1♂, same locality, Morro da Igreja, 500–850m, 17.v.2003, A. Moser & I. Rank leg., AMC381 (AMC); 1♀, same locality, Rio Vermelho, 850m, 3–5.vi.2002, I. Rank leg., AMC380 (AMC); 1♂, same locality, 2.iii.2017, CF-LYC-1390* (CF). Rio Grande do Sul. 1♂, HOLOTYPE Thecla cinerea, MNHN EL 84502, ADN-EL84502*, illustrated on Fig. 6 (MNHN).
description: Published as part of Faynel, Christophe, Busby, Robert C., Dolibaina, Diego R., Huertas, Blanca & Fåhraeus, Christer, 2025, A review of the Ocaria arpoxais species group (Lycaenidae: Theclinae) with the description of a new species previously confused with O. cinerea (Lathy), pp. 47-67 in Zootaxa 5618 (1) on page 54, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5618.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/15217247