wingspan :
we spent a lot of time trying to place these Eurybia in the appropriate species... but to no avail.
these butterflies, pictured by Karen Nichols and Les Catchick at Apuya, and by Tobias Policha at Yasuni, present a set of features that no known species seems to posess :
- UP : almost solid black, with, for some specimens at least, a purple hue,
- FWUP : red and black eyespot with a blue glow in the center, two orange dots - not four - near the eyespot and two white ones near the costa,
- HWUP : the rings red colour does not reach the wing margin, the rings themselves are more or less thickened, sometimes almost square and extending basally.
- black antennae, with the upper part of the distal half of the club almost white..
in addition to the two bottom specimens, David Geale took pictures of two similar butterflies one at Arajuno and one near Nangaritza. https://www.loja-zamora.eu/en/fiche-papillon/021-Riodinidae/003-Riodininae/003-Eurybiini/001-Eurybia/011-sp/_
https://www.sangay.eu/en/fiche-papillon/021-Riodinidae/003-Riodininae/003-Eurybiini/001-Eurybia/011-sp/_
there is no such Eurybia on BoA, but obviously some fly in Eastern Ecuador ; we can think of only two possibiliies, apart from the "discovery" of a new species :
- the first idea, which seems to make sense, would be a melanic form of E. nicaeus erythinosa which is not uncommon in the Oriente, from Sucumbios to Zamora (see individual variation page), but it is an unsubstantiated assumption as we did not collect any specimen.
- the other possibility would be a very dark specimen of Eurybia annulata that would show a thickening of the HW red rings (see individual variation page).
