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Title: Immature stages of the Selaginella-feeding Euptychia mollina (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) from the Brazilian Amazon
Author: Iserhard, Cristiano Agra; Brown, Keith Spalding; Freitas, André Victor Lucci
Year: 2013
Is part of: Journal of Insect Conservation, v. 17, p. 615 - 622
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-013-9546-z

Citation: Iserhard, Cristiano Agra; Brown, Keith Spalding; Freitas, André Victor Lucci; Immature stages of the Selaginella-feeding Euptychia mollina (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) from the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Insect Conservation, v.17, p. 615-622, 2013

Abstract: The present paper describes the immature stages of the Neotropical satyrine butterfly Euptychia mollina (Hubner, [1813]) from the Brazilian Amazon Forest. Eggs were laid singly on the under surface of the fronds of its host plant, Selaginella sp. (Bryophyta: Selaginellaceae). Larvae are solitary in all instars, presenting a color pattern and shape that make them cryptic on its host plant. The pupa is short, smooth and varies from rusty brown to green. Despite the lack of a close phylogenetic relationship, larvae of Euptychia are very similar to those of the paleotropical satyrines Ragadia and Acrophtalmia, suggesting that camouflage is likely to be one of the factors explaining the similarities among them.

Keywords: Borboletas; Conservação; Neotropical;

Funding: Thanks to Keith Willmott for carefully revising and giving valuable suggestions on the last version of the manuscript; to Carla Penz and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments in the submitted version of our manuscript. Keith S. Brown helped during field work in Alta Floresta in 2000. To Shinichi Nakahara for identifying adults from both rearing lots. Andre Rangel Nascimento identified the parasitoid. JYOC and LLM thanks Capes for a postgraduate fellowship. This study was financed in part by the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES - Finance Code 001). EPB thanksT Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) for a post-doc fellowship (FAPESP 2016/15873-8). AVLF acknowledges support from FAPESP (Biota-Fapesp - grants 2011/50225-3), from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq fellowship 302585/2011-7, 421248/2017-3), from the National Science Foundation (DEB-1256742) and from the United States Agency for International Development - USAID/the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), under the PEER program (Sponsor Grant Award Number: AID-OAA-A-11-00012) (Mapping and Conserving Butterfly Biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon). This publication is part of the RedeLep 'Rede Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservacao de Lepidopteros' SISBIOTA-Brasil/CNPq (563332/2010-7). Butterfly species are registered in the SISGEN (A4E702A).
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