Riodinid butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera) of the Cosñipata Region, Peru: Annotated checklist, community structure, and contrast with Lycaenidae

Authors

Gerardo Lamas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San MarcosFollow
Jon D. Turner, Ardmore, TNFollow
Michael L. McInnis, Floyds Knobs, IndianaFollow
Robert K. Robbins, Smithsonian InstitutionFollow

Date of this Version

4-28-2023

Citation

Lamas G, Turner JD, McInnis ML, Robbins RK. 2023. Riodinid butterfly fauna (Lepidoptera) of the Cosñipata Region, Peru: Annotated checklist, community structure, and contrast with Lycaenidae. Insecta Mundi 0988: 1–35.

Comments

Published on April 28, 2023 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P.O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License,

Abstract

A team of experienced lepidopterists sampled the butterfly fauna of Peru’s Cosñipata Region from 400 to 4,000 m elevation for more than a decade (7,440 field person-hours) and supplemented this sam­ple with data from museum specimens and the scientific literature. An annotated checklist of Cosñipata Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) documents 398 species, which represents 29% of the world Rio­dinidae fauna. For each, it lists sample abundance, adult behavior, elevation, and temporal distribution. In the fieldwork sample, 75 species (20.9%) were sampled once and 39 (9.8%) were not encountered (collected or imaged by others). A riodinid species of median abundance was sampled an average of once every 826 field person-hours. Sampled sex ratios were 81.2% male, but were not statistically higher in species in which male perching behavior was observed. We document examples of conspicuous geographic variation in the time of male perching behavior. Species richness is greatest at low elevation and at the transition between the dry and wet seasons. There is little evidence that the community is composed of species restricted to narrow elevational bands or restricted in the adult stage to a single season. Compared with Lycaenidae, Riodinidae are significantly more restricted to lowland habitats and were sampled 2.5 times as frequently with a mean number of individuals per species more than twice as great as that of Lycaenidae.