''Pseudoscada erruca'' is a South-American species of

brush-footed butterfly The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a redu ...

in the

Godyridina Ithomiini is a butterfly tribe in the nymphalid subfamily Danainae. It is sometimes referred to as the tribe of clearwing butterflies or glasswing butterflies. Some authors consider the group to be a subfamily (Ithomiinae). These butterflies ar ...

subtribe of

Ithomiini Ithomiini is a butterfly tribe in the nymphalid subfamily Danainae. It is sometimes referred to as the tribe of clearwing butterflies or glasswing butterflies. Some authors consider the group to be a subfamily (Ithomiinae). These butterflies are ...

. It was described in 1855 by

William Chapman Hewitson William Chapman Hewitson (9 January 1806, in Newcastle upon Tyne – 28 May 1878, in Oatlands Park, Surrey) was a British naturalist. A wealthy collector, Hewitson was particularly devoted to Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies ...

as ''Ithomia erruca''.

Distribution and habitat

The type locality of ''Pseudoscada erruca'' is

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It also occurs in other parts of Brazil, such as

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

, and in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. ''Pseudoscada erruca'' occurs in humid habitats with a permanent presence of water. Research in 2009 on the frequency of occurrence of species in tribe Ithomiini in old-growth tropical forest versus nearby fragmented landscapes found that the presence of ''P. erruca'' was more frequent in the latter than the former.

Behaviour

Females deposit individual eggs on the underside of leaves of ''

Sessea brasiliensis ''Sessea brasiliensis'' is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae. It is endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; or ...

'' and less commonly ''

Cestrum ''Cestrum'' is a genus of — depending on authority — 150-250 species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. They are native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southernmost United States (Florida, Texas: day ...

'' spp., with a preference for plants at a height between 1 and 1.5 m in shaded spots. Larvae feed from the leaves of the plant on which they hatch, generally developing better on ''S. brasiliensis'' than on ''Cestrum'' species. Adults drink nectar, with a preference for the flowers of '' Rubus rosaefolius''. Adults of ''P. erruca'' are on wing in both dry and rainy seasons.

Parasitoids

''Pseudoscapa erruca'' is host to multiple species of parasitoid wasps, with at least one species each from genera ''

Telenomus ''Telenomus'' is a genus of parasitoid wasps from the subfamily Telenominae. The genus was first described by Alexander Henry Haliday in 1833. Species in this genus parasitise the eggs or immature stages of other insects. Known hosts include : ...

'', ''

Trichogramma ''Trichogramma'' is a genus of minute polyphagous wasps that are endoparasitoids of insect eggs. ''Trichogramma'' is one of around 80 genera from the family Trichogrammatidae, with over 200 species worldwide.Consoli FL, Parra JRP, Zucchi RA (2010 ...

'', '' Diadegma'' and ''

Mesochorus ''Mesochorus'' is a genus of ichneumon wasps in the family Ichneumonidae The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family (biology), family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. T ...

''. It has also been found parasitized by a

tachinid fly The Tachinidae are a large and variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. Over 1,300 species have been described in North America alone. Insects in this family ...

species.

Footnotes and references

Footnotes

References

Ithomiini Butterflies described in 1855 Nymphalidae of South America Taxa named by William Chapman Hewitson {{Danainae-stub