Distribution extension of Adelpha melona pseudarete Fruhstorfer , 1915 ( Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae ) with the first records for South Brazil

Adelpha melona pseudarete is reported from 11 new records for south Brazil, which increases its distribution by about 900 km south from São Paulo. These new records are the most southern for this species.


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species with extremely few records and nothing is known about its biology.The aim of this study was to record new occurrences of A. m. pseudarete for South Brazil, and thus add to the knowledge of its geographical distribution and question of its supposed rarity.
Recently, A. m. pseudarete have been recorded in Floresta Estadual do Palmito (FEP) (25°35ʹ S, 04832ʹ W; altitude 1020 above sea level), a "sustainable use" protected area according to the Brazilian Environmental Law (SNUC 2000, law N° 9.985), located in Paranaguá municipality, in the coastal region of Paraná, about 12 km from the ocean.The FEP is located at the Atlantic Forest biome and is covered by lowland dense ombrophilous forest, pioneering formations with maritime (Restinga or "sand forest", composed by trees, marshes and shrubs), and fluvial-marine (mangrove) influences (IBGE 2012).According to the Köppen's classification,  the climate is Cfa, humid subtropical with hot summer (Alvares et al. 2013).The average annual temperature and precipitation is about 22°C and 2,000 mm, respectively (Caviglione et al. 2000).
Specimens of Adelpha in the Coleção Entomológica Padre Jesus Santiago Moure, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná (DZUP) were also studied.
A total of 11 new records of A. m. pseudarete were obtained, which increased the current knowledge of its natural distribution in about 900 km southwards (Figure 5).In FEP, males were founded perching along ridge tops from 3-10 m above the ground in a trail with large sunlit patches (Figure 6), mainly in the hottest hours of the day (11:30 h to 15:00 h).This behavior is common in nymphalid butterflies and has been recorded for several Adelpha species (Willmott 2003).
The other locations from Paraná state (Matinhos, Paranaguá and Pontal do Paraná municipalities) in which the species was recorded are also located in the coastal region and have a similar floristic composition as at FEP, composed by lowland dense ombrophilous forest with Restinga and/or mangroves.The southernmost record of the distribution of A. m. pseudarete is from Ijuí municipality, Rio Grande do Sul state, an ecotone of seasonal deciduous forest and grasslands, characterized by lowland forests and "banhados" (marsh environments) (Cordeiro and Hasenack 2009).Some old data obtained from the DZUP collection prevents accurate characterization of some sites.
The increase in number of occurrences suggests that the supposed rarity of A. m. pseudarete is a sampling effort artifact, because until now, there were no published distributional data of this subspecies from southern Brazil (Willmott 2003).Despite South Brazil having sites well-sampled (Santos et al. 2008;Siewert et al. 2014), it is important to prioritize areas with few, incomplete or no inventories.Thus, it is possible to increase the knowledge on the distributional patterns of butterflies and filling any remaining gaps.

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Distribution map of Adelpha melona pseudarete Fruhstorfer, 1915.Black circles are the records according to Willmott (2003).Red squares are the new records.