Notes on the natural history of six nymphalid butterfly species from an Ecuadorian dry forest

Abstract

We provide notes on the natural history and images of the immature stages of six butterfly species inhabiting westEcuadorian dry forest, including Magneuptychia libye, Memphis artacaena, Scada zemira, Opsiphanes cassina fabricii, Heliconiuserato cyrbia and Dryas iulia moderata (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Five of these species have no previously published lifehistory information from this region and habitat, and one species is an endemic. We report two new generic host plant records,Hieronyma (Euphorbiaceae) for Memphis, and Piresia (Poaceae) for Magneuptychia. Eggs or caterpillars of all species werecollected in primary forest and reared to adult in the laboratory. The study was carried out in the Bosque Seco Lalo Loor Reservelocated in western Ecuador, from June through August 2013, and was part of a capacity-building program to train local people inbutterfly research, which included collection and rearing components.