Immature stages of Splendeuptychia ambra (Nymphalidae: Euptychiina) and the diversity of immature morphology within Splendeuptychia

Abstract

The immature stages are described for Splendeuptychia ambra (Weymer, [1911]). The eggs are rounded, pale yellow, smooth, and lack markings. The caterpillars pass through four instars; the first instar is pale cream with reddish longitudinal stripes and the head is black bearing a pair of very short scoli; the last (fourth) instar is beige with a pair of short caudal filaments on the last segment, laterally striped with thin lines and a darker dorsal stripe; the head is olive-brown with a pair of short scoli. The pupae are short and smooth, mostly light brown, mottled with dark brown stripes, with short rounded ocular caps and with very short paired subdorsal projections on the abdominal segments. The immature stages of S. ambra are compared with those of other species of the non-monophyletic genus Splendeuptychia that belong to three different clades within the subtribe Euptychiina.