Published March 21, 2025 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Xeniades orchamus

  • 1. Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon, Potomac, MD, USA
  • 2. Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
  • 3. Alliance for a Sustainable Amazon, Potomac, MD, USA & Department of Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Lima, Peru & Department of Natural History, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Description

Xeniades orchamus (Cramer, 1777)

(voucher 2022-FLP-IMM-0228) (Table 1, Fig. 1)

Larval instar n-3: Head capsule mostly light brown, with dark brown along epicranial suture, lateral adfrontal lines, and broadly on center of face. One pair of light brown markings close to the epicranial suture above the frons and light brown adfrontal areas. Epicranial notch insignificant. Epicranial suture dark brown and extending over frons. Dark brown coloration present as raised sculpture on lateral areas of head capsule. Except for spiky areas near vertex, entire head capsule with coarse, shallow sculpture. Setae white and numerous. 6 stemmata present, stemma 5 slightly larger than others and closer to stemma 6 than stemma 4. Clypeus translucent orange and labrum translucent white. Body with prothoracic shield visible as black dorsal band. Testes noticeable as two creamy-white spots via semi-translucent dorsally on A6. Integument purple-brown on segments T1–3 and A8–9, solid green A2–6, and fading between colors on A1 and A7. Orange spiracles on T1 and A1–8, with tracheal system visible along spiracles through integument. Subspiracular ridge white, orange to pink below each spiracle. Medium-length dense setae interspersed with longer setae across body. Anal shield dark purple. Legs dark reddish-brown. Prolegs white.

Larval instar n-2: Head capsule similar to previous instar with base color dark yellow and with more extensive dark brown frontally. Adfrontal areas dark brown, no longer light-colored. Setae white and longer than previous instar. Anteclypeus black. Body similar to previous instar but subspiracular ridge faded to translucent white, colors slightly darker, and anal shield black. Testes creamy-white.

Larval instar n-1: Head capsule similar to previous instar with base color orange and previously dark brown areas now black, more solid dark coloration frontally and increasingly intermixed with orange moving outwards. Long, sturdy setae. Clypeus orange and anteclypeus black with translucent cream transverse stripe. Body with integument entirely translucent dark purple, green internally. Bright red coloration surrounding spiracles, extending to the otherwise white subspiracular ridge. Legs light brown. Prolegs pink. Body covered in long white setae. Testes light translucent red.

Larval instar n: Head capsule similar to previous instar but dark reddish brown with wax in dense patches. Mouthparts dark. Setae longer and denser. Body similar to previous instar but with yellow internal structures visible on A5. White wax ventrally on A7–8. A8–9 black dorsally. Pink digestive tract visible inside abdomen dorsally. Testes light translucent red.

Pupa: Head and thorax dark reddish-brown, fading to orange-brown abdomen. Final abdominal segment and cremaster dark reddish-brown. Medium-length orange setae in patches on head and prothorax, with shorter setae on rest of body. Cylindrical cephalic projection, curved ventrally and with orange setae distally. Maxillae separated from body, extending slightly beyond cremaster. Head and thorax dorsally with patches of white wax, concentrated in crevices. Remainder of body with thin waxy coating, slightly less dense on posterior half of body. Cremaster attached to a densely woven silk shelter structure.

Notes

Published as part of Sherer, Alexander, Raghuraman, Savitri, Nakahara, Shinichi & Gallice, Geoffrey, 2025, Immature stages and host plant records for the skipper butterflies Xeniades orchamus (Cramer, 1777), Dubia dubia (Bell, 1932), and Tricrista canta (Evans, 1955) in the Peruvian Amazon (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae: Hesperiini), pp. 390-404 in Zootaxa 5609 (3) on pages 392-394, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5609.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/15215282

Files

Files (3.7 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:e0e5cc005974e511d757bab62732c75e
3.7 kB Download

System files (13.0 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:6da8b93b65a8d263320c373510cc9e81
13.0 kB Download

Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Material sample ID
2022-FLP-IMM-0228
Scientific name authorship
Cramer
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Order
Lepidoptera
Family
Hesperiidae
Genus
Xeniades
Species
orchamus
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Xeniades orchamus (Cramer, 1777) sec. Sherer, Raghuraman, Nakahara & Gallice, 2025

References

  • Cramer, P. (1777) De uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen Asia, Africa en America. Papillons exotiques des trois parties du monde l'Asie, l'Afrique et l'Amerique. Vol. 9. S. J. Baalde, Utrecht, Barthelemy Wild and J. Van Schoonhoven & Comp., Amsterdam, 151 pp.