Three new species in the Mesene monostigma group from the Transandean region (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae: Symmachiini)

Abstract

Three new riodinid species in the monostigma group of Mesene Doubleday, 1847 (Symmachiini) are described from the Transandean region. Two distinctive species, M. pirata Hall & Solis n. sp. and M. lojensis Hall n. sp., are described from moist forest habitats, the former from the low-lying Bay Islands of northern Honduras, and the latter from premontane elevations in southwestern Ecuador. The third, M. nemo Hall n. sp., is a cryptic species externally resembling M. monostigma (Erichson, [1849]) that is described from wet lowland forest habitats between eastern Panama and northwestern Ecuador. Mesene monostigma Auct. is shown here on the basis of wing pattern and particularly male genitalia differences to consist of three species, including the Transandean M. nemo and the west Amazonian M. discolor Stichel, 1929 (stat. rev.), with true M. monostigma ranging widely across much of wet tropical eastern South America. All five monostigma group species appear to be allo- or parapatrically distributed throughout the Neotropics. The names celetes Bates, 1868, and rochesteri Weeks, 1906, are newly synonymized with M. monostigma (n. syns.).