Notes on the natural history of six nymphalid butterfly species from an Ecuadorian dry forest
Authors
María F. Checa
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Museo QCAZ de Invertebrados, Apartado postal 17-01-21-84. Quito, Ecuador
Karina Torres
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Museo QCAZ de Invertebrados, Apartado postal 17-01-21-84. Quito, Ecuador
Keywords:
dry forest, western Ecuador, Nymphalidae, natural history, Lepidoptera.
Abstract
We provide notes on the natural history and images of the immature stages of six butterfly species inhabiting west Ecuadorian dry forest, including Magneuptychia libye, Memphis artacaena, Scada zemira, Opsiphanes cassina fabricii, Heliconius erato cyrbia and Dryas iulia moderata (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Five of these species have no previously published life history information from this region and habitat, and one species is an endemic. We report two new generic host plant records, Hieronyma (Euphorbiaceae) for Memphis, and Piresia (Poaceae) for Magneuptychia. Eggs or caterpillars of all species were collected in primary forest and reared to adult in the laboratory. The study was carried out in the Bosque Seco Lalo Loor Reserve located in western Ecuador, from June through August 2013, and was part of a capacity-building program to train local people in butterfly research, which included collection and rearing components.