Abstract
A new species of Euptychiina butterfly, Splendeuptychia mercedes n. sp. is described from the Amazonian region and Eastern Andean slopes of Peru. The morphology, distribution and conservation status of the new species are described and discussed. Pucacuro Currently there are 23 described species in the genus Splendeuptychia Forster, 1964 (Lamas & Viloria 2004), occurring from Mexico to Argentina. Although some species of Splendeuptychia (e.g. S. ackeryi, S. aurigera) are local, others can be abundant(e.g. S.furina). However, all are uncommon in museum collections and are often mis-identified. Recently, Splendeuptychia has been found to be polyphyletic (Pefia et al. 2010, Pefia et al. 2011), its supposed differentiating characters not being diagnostic (Huertas et al. 2009). Despite the genus having been considered most attractive Euptychiina (Butler 1866), Splendeuptychia is nevertheless one of the most poorly studied genera in the subtribe and there remains a large number of undescribed species (Lamas & Viloria 2004; Huertas et al. 2009). This paper (together with others recently published, e.g. Huertas et al. 2009) aims to place the fundamental alpha taxonomy of this genus on a stronger footing.
NSTL