Opoptera syme Hubner 1821

Opoptera syme (Hübner, 1821)

(Fig. 1 A, 2A, 2G–H, 4A, 5A, 6A)

Type species of the genus by original designation.

Type locality. Brazil.

Diagnosis. Male FW length range 38.9–42.7 mm (based on specimens in Appendix 1). Wings with pale brown background from base through medial (FW) or postmedial areas (HW), turning darker brown distally. Overall background coloration slightly darker than O. sulcius. FW with a conspicuous, orange ‘Y-shaped’ postmedial band that has a narrow proximal arm, and a well-developed (although broken) distal arm that intersects and obscures the subapical white spots. HW with a faded submarginal band. Males have a HW discal cell hairpencil and a scent-pocket. Ventral HW with a well-defined white postmedial band distal to the eyespots. Females similar to, but paler than males dorsally, and with a pale blue iridescence across the medial area of the HW.

Distribution. Brazil (southeastern coast, Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo) (Brown 1992, Uehara-Prado et al. 2004, Appendix 1).

Remarks. Casagrande (2004) lists no subspecies for O. syme. It is unlikely that the specimen described by Rothshild (1916) as ssp. colombicola Rothshild was actually collected in Colombia. Although the male genitalia is nearly identical to O. sulcius, differences were found in the female genitalia. Opoptera syme and sulcius seem to co-occur in a few sites along their ranges, such as Campos do Jordão and Reserva Estadual do Morro Grande, Cotia (both in São Paulo state), and Nova Friburgo and Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro; A.V.L. Freitas and K.S. Brown, pers. comm.).