Blepolenis batea Hubner 1821
Creators: name: Penz, Carla M.
name: Mohammadi, Neda
name: Wahlberg, Niklas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Nymphalidae
Blepolenis
Blepolenis batea

description: Blepolenis batea (Hübner, 1821)
Type species
Fig. 1 E–K, 2D–F
Diagnosis. Forewing length of male 3.88–4.61 cm (mean = 4.34, n = 15), and female 3.99–4.8 cm (mean = 4.62, n = 7). Very similar to B. catharinae, but males can be easily distinguished from that species by the presence of a dorsal hair pencil in the hind wing discal cell. In males and females, postmedial border of dorsal forewing orange area less jagged than in B. catharinae. Dorsal hind wing orange area usually smaller than in B. catharinae. General ventral coloration more vivid than in B. catharinae (fresh specimens of both species were compared), making the ventral forewing brown submarginal band darker and better defined. Females are similar to, and difficult to separate from, those of B. catharinae. Female ventral forewing brown submarginal band usually solid color, without the ripple pattern usually visible in B. catharinae.
Genitalia. Both the male and female genitalia are similar in size those of B. catharinae. Male specimens (six dissections) varied in the width of the distal half of the valva, and also the number of subterminal spines at the dorsal edge (Fig. 2 E). The ventral outline of the valva in lateral view was consistent across specimens (Fig. 2 D). Female sterigma with long lateral arms, main plate short and with a shorter midline lobe than B. bassus (three dissections). Corpus bursa oval shaped, with paired signa, and constricted at the meeting point with the narrow ductus bursa (Fig. 2 F).
Distribution. Brazil, Atlantic forest, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo to Rio Grande do Sul; Paraguay (Kochalka et al. 1996, Casagrande 2004); Uruguay (Betancur-Viglione 2009).
Variation and subspecies. The local and geographical color variation within B. batea gave rise to the description of several subspecies and forms, and three valid subspecies are currently recognized (see Casagrande 2004): nominal B. batea batea (type locality: Brazil), B. batea didymaon (Brazil), and B. batea praegrandis (Fruhstorfer, 1907) (Paraguay). The account for B. batea in Fruhstorfer (1912) is detailed and includes comments on type specimens, and from that work it seems that the original description of B. batea by Hübner (1821) corresponds to a dorsally pale-orange colored specimen in which the delimitation between the dorsal forewing brown edge and orange base is approximately straight. This is the phenotype illustrated by D’Abrera (1987) and Fig. 1 K (Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro), and according to our samples it seems to be a less common phenotype than that in Fig. 1 E. Although wing color and shape differences between Fig. 1 K and 1E seem extreme, we have examined specimens with intermediate phenotypes from several locations including Nova Friburgo itself, and also Serra do Caraça (Minas Gerais), and São Paulo, and there are no obvious differences between male genitalia of these forms. From this we conclude that, as currently understood, B. batea batea shows a broad range of color variation, and subspecific definition within B. batea is therefore problematic. Although one specimen from Paraguay (Caazapá, P. N. Caaguazú) examined from a photograph matches the defining characters given by Fruhstorfer (1912) for B. b. praegrandis, we found that such characters fit within the range of variation observed for B. batea batea in Brazil (photographs of a Paraguayan specimen were provided by S. Rios, specimen from the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Paraguay collection). Therefore, the status of this subspecies should be verified by examination of a series of specimens. Fruhstorfer (1912) noted that the width of the dorsal forewing dark brown area is narrowest at the northern part of the species distribution, progressively becoming broader towards southern localities in Brazil (and probably Uruguay). We confirmed his assessment, and southern specimens with little or no orange color distal from the dorsal forewing discal cell correspond to the described B. batea didymaon (Fig. 1 H and I). Nonetheless, we feel that the local and clinal variation in color pattern in B. batea calls the recognition of discrete subspecies into question.
Natural history notes. The early stages of B. batea have not been described. André Freitas (pers. comm.) observed females of this species ovipositing on an unidentified grass, and notes that adults can be locally common on forest edges bordered by wet to flooded grassland in higher altitude localities. Reported host plants include Gramineae and Arecaceae (see Beccaloni et al. 2008).
description: Published as part of Penz, Carla M., Mohammadi, Neda & Wahlberg, Niklas, 2011, Neotropical Blepolenis butterflies: wing pattern elements, phylogeny, and Pleistocene diversification (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae), pp. 1-17 in Zootaxa 2897 on page 8, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.205026