Immature Stages, Natural History, Systematics and Conservation of an Endangered Neotropical Butterfly: the Case of Scada karschina delicata (Nymphalidae: Ithomiini).

The endangered butterfly Scada karschina delicata Talbot, 1932 (Nymphalidae: Danainae: Ithomiini) is endemic to northeastern Brazil, occurring in very few forest remnants of the 'Pernambuco Center of Endemism'. Larvae feed on Solanaceae and are very similar to those of other species in the subtribe Mechanitina, with lateral projections on body, one of the main synapomorphies of this subtribe. Based on molecular data, S. k. delicata clustered together with S. karschina karschina, as a monophyletic group sister to the amazon clade of S. reckia. Based on all available data, S. k. delicata is known from only five localities of mid- to high-altitude forests (from 500 to 1000 m of altitude) in northeastern Brazil. Grounded on available data, a new assessment of extinction risk is proposed, and S. k. delicata is now considered Vulnerable (VU) taxon.

A New and Rare Actinote Hübner (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae: Acraeini) from Southeastern Brazil.

The present paper describes a new species of Actinote (Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae, Acraeini), Actinote keithbrowni Freitas, Francini & Mielke sp. nov., from southeastern Brazil, based on morphological and molecular data. The new species is very similar in wing pattern to Actinote eberti, within what we term the "light-gray mimicry complex." The host plants and immature stages of the new species are unknown. Actinote keithbrowni sp. nov. is one of the rarest species of Actinote from Brazil: in total, only eight individuals of this species are known from a narrow region of the Itatiaia massif despite years of collecting effort in that region since the 1940s.