Immature Stages and New Host Plant Records for Three Species in the "Taygetis Clade" of Euptychiina in Southeastern Peru (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae).

We report here the immature stages and natural host plants for three species in the so-called "Taygetis clade" of the nymphalid butterfly subtribe Euptychiina, Taygetis echo (Cramer, 1775), Taygetis sosis Hopffer, 1874, and Pseudodebis valentina (Cramer, 1779). The study was carried out at Finca Las Piedras in Madre de Dios department, Peru. Taygetis echo was observed utilizing a species of herbaceous bamboo, Olyra latifolia L. (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae), T. sosis was found feeding on another species of herbaceous bamboo, Pariana lunata Nees (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae), and P. valentina was found utilizing a species of woody bamboo, Guadua weberbaueri Pilg. (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae). We describe and provide photos of the immatures and host plants, as well as illustrations of the head capsules for each of these three species.

Immature stages and new host plant records for four satyrine species feeding on herbaceous bamboos in southeastern Peru (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae: Satyrini).

We here document the immature stages of three euptychiine butterflies, Nhambikuara mima (Butler, 1867), Splendeuptychia furina (Hewitson, 1862), and Paryphthimoides brixius (Godart, [1824]), all found feeding on a species of herbaceous bamboo, Taquara micrantha (Kunth) I.L.C.Oliveira R.P.Oliveira (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae) in Madre de Dios, Peru. This study is the first to report the life history of these three taxa with their natural host plant. We provide illustrations of immatures, head capsules, and the host plant for each of these three species. The immature morphology of these taxa supports recent generic arrangements of these three species in comparison with their close relatives, namely Splendeuptychia furina to Nhambikuara mima and Paryphthimoides brixius to Paryphthimoides terrestris (Butler, 1867), a species documented in our successive study. Thus, the present study includes taxonomic implications based on immature stages by discovering putative synapomorphic characters of larvae and pupae. These pairs of closely related species occur in micro-sympatry at the study site in southeastern Peru, and our observations possibly suggest niche partitioning between sibling species. Additionally, we report two herbaceous bamboo species, Olyra latifolia L. and Taquara micrantha (Kunth) I.L.C.Oliveira R.P.Oliveira as the first known natural host plants for Magneuptychia harpyia (C. Felder R. Felder, 1867).

Immature stages, new host plant records and shelter structures of Troyus phyllides (Röber, 1925) and Thoon ponka Evans, 1955 in the Peruvian Amazon (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae: Hesperiini).

We describe here for the first time the complete immature life cycles and shelter structures of two Neotropical skipper butterflies in the subtribe Moncina, Troyus phyllides (Röber, 1925) and Thoon ponka Evans 1955, along with new natural host plant records for these species at Finca Las Piedras, Madre de Dios, Peru. Four eggs and a preantepenultimate larva of T. phyllides, as well as three eggs of Thoon ponka were collected in nature and each passed through five larval instars to adulthood. Troyus phyllides fed on a herbaceous species, Lasiacis ligulata Hitchcock & Chase (Poaceae: Panicoideae: Paniceae), while T. ponka fed on two congeneric herbaceous bamboo species, Pariana lunata Nees and Pariana sp. (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Olyreae). We present photos of all immature stages and host plants, as well as illustrations of the shelter structures and the head capsules for each of these two species.