Subtle life cycle differences between two sympatric Mesosemia (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) butterflies

ABSTRACT

The natural history and morphology of two sympatric species of Rubiaceae-feeding metalmark butterflies, Mesosemia m. machaera and Mesosemia philocles jeziela, are described and illustrated using both light and scanning electron microscopy. These species use the same Rubiaceae host plant species and have similar life cycles. Single eggs are laid on old leaves, caterpillars are solitary, and pupation occurs off the host plant. Differences occur during ontogeny with caterpillars using different host plant parts, M. m. machaera feeds on the abaxial leaf surface and M. philocles jeziela on the new leaves and adaxial surface. There is also variation in the number of instars, size and number of setae and details in larval and pupal color patterns. Caterpillars are non-myrmecophilous and have defense-related tentacle nectary organs (TNOs), the functionality of this organ in pupae is recorded for the first time. These results show that although similar, subtle differences exist in the Mesosemia life cycles.

KEYWORDS:

• Ant-organs
• chaetotaxy
• Psychotria
• resource partition
• super black
• structural absorption

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Carolina Casas Pinilla for logistic support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Geolocation information

Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia (point): 4°03ʹ35.54”N, 73°42ʹ01.45”W.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (PNPD-CAPES) – Finance Code 001, and National Geographic Society (#WW-224R-17).