Description of three new species of Automeris Hübner, 1819 from Colombia and Brazil (Lepidoptera, Saturniidae, Hemileucinae)

By

Decaëns, Thibaud
Bénéluz, Frédéric
Ballesteros Mejia, Liliana
Bonilla, Diego
Rougerie, Rodolphe, 1974-

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1031

Pages

183--204

Subjects

Amazonia , DNA barcoding , integrative taxonomy , Neotropics , new species , Orinoco , wild silkmoths

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1031.56035

 

Abstract

The Saturniidae is one of the most emblematic families of moths, comprising nearly 3000 species distributed globally. In this study, DNA barcode analysis and comparative morphology were combined to describe three new species within the genusAutomeris, which is the most diverse genus in the family.Automeris llanerosDecaëns, Rougerie & Bonilla,sp. nov.,Automeris minerosDecaëns, Rougerie & Bonilla,sp. nov., andAutomeris belemensisDecaëns, Rougerie & Bénéluz,sp. nov.are described from the Colombian Orinoco watershed, the Colombian Eastern Cordillera, and the area of endemism of Belém in the Brazilian Amazonia, respectively. They all belong to theAutomeris bilinea(Walker, 1855) species subgroup, which comprises a number of species that are sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other using morphology alone. Here, the description of these three new species is based on significant differences from their closest relatives, either in terms of wing patterns, genitalia, DNA barcodes or a combination of these features.