Systematic Revision of a New Butterfly Genus, Cisandina Nakahara & Espeland, n. gen., with Descriptions of Three New Taxa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae)

Abstract

We here establish a new genus in the nymphalid butterfly subtribe Euptychiina, Cisandina Nakahara & Espeland, n. gen. to harbor five species hitherto placed within two polyphyletic genera, namely Magneuptychia Forster, 1964 and Euptychoides Forster, 1964. We compiled data from over 350 specimens in 17 public and private collections, as well as DNA sequence data for all relevant species, to revise the species-level classification of this new genus. According to our multi-locus molecular phylogeny estimated with the maximum likelihood approach, Cisandina lea n. comb., Cisandina philippa n. comb. & reinst. stat., Cisandina fida n. comb., Cisandina sanmarcos n. comb., and Cisandina trinitensis n. comb. are proposed as new taxonomic combinations, since these species are distantly related to the type species of Magneuptychia and Euptychoides and cannot reasonably be accommodated in any other genus. Lectotypes are designated for Papilio lea Cramer, 1777, Papilio junia Cramer, 1780, Euptychia philippa Butler, 1867, and Eupytchia fida Weymer, 1911. Two new species of Cisandina n. gen. are named and described herein, C. esmeralda Nakahara & Barbosa, n. sp. and C. castanya Lamas & Nakahara, n. sp., increasing the described species diversity of the genus to seven. The immature stages of C. castanya n. sp. and C. philippa n. comb. & reinst. stat. are documented along with their natural hostplants, representing the first two species of the genus with known life history information. We describe a new subspecies, Cisandina fida directa Nakahara & Willmott, n. ssp., based on a limited number of specimens from southern Ecuador and central Peru. We were unable to obtain genetic data for the nominate race of C. fida n. comb., and thus, this taxonomic hypothesis is currently based solely on phenotypic characters.