A phylogenetic review of Charis and Calephelis (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae)

Abstract

A phylogenetic analysis of the Neotropical riodinid butterfly genera Charis Hübner and Calephelis Grote and Robinson is presented. Cladistic analyses using 31 characters of male and female genitalia and external facies generated cladograms indicating that Charis is paraphyletic with respect to Calephelis. The analyses highlight the existence of four major clades, the ocellata Hewitson, cleonus Stoll, anius Cramer, and virginiensis Guérin-Méneville groups, which we treat as genera. The generic names Charis and Calephelis are applicable to the last two groups, but new genera are described for the first two: Seco n. gen. for the ocellata group and Detritivora n. gen. for the cleonus group. Each genus is diagnosed and provided with illustrations of representative adults and male and female genitalia, a synonymic checklist and list of all known foodplants. The following taxa are misplaced in the analyzed clade: aerigera Stichel and xanthosa Stichel are transferred from Charis to Emesis F. (n. combs.), and myrtis H. Druce is transferred from Charis to Exoplisia Godman and Salvin (n. combs.). Charis irina Stichel is synonymized with Charis iris Staudinger (n. syn.) and Charis cadytis acroxantha Stichel is synonymized with nominate C. cadytis Hewitson (n. syn.). The taxon candiope H. Druce is transferred from Charis to Calephelis for the first time (n. comb.) and iris and celutina Godman and Salvin are returned to Calephelis from Charis (rev. combs.).