''Riodina lysippus'' is a species of

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

metalmark butterfly. It is the type species of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

and of the entire family

Riodinidae Riodinidae is the family of metalmark butterflies. The common name "metalmarks" refers to the small, metallic-looking spots commonly found on their wings. The 1532 species are placed in 146 genera. Although mostly Neotropical in distribution, t ...

. It is found throughout northern parts of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

''Riodina''
funet.fi and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Description

Upperside. The wings are chocolate black. On the anterior is an orange-coloured line, which, rising about the middle of the anterior edge, crosses the wing towards the anal angle, where it suddenly bends, and terminates at the posterior edge. The posterior wings, which are angulated, have a circular orange line, rising at the anterior edge, near the corner, crossing the wings, and meeting near the anal angle. Underside. The wings are of the same colour as on the upperside, with the same orange line, whereon, in the anterior pair, are some white spots. Between this and the base are several faint, dirty grey, oblong spots, namely, four on the anterior, and about twenty on the posterior wing. The base of the anterior margin of the fore wings, and the anal margin of the posterior wings, are of a red colour.

Subspecies

*''Riodina lysippus lysippus'' (Venezuela) *''Riodina lysippus erratica'' Seitz, 1913 (Brazil: Amazonas) *''Riodina lysippus lysias'' Stichel, 1910 (Ecuador, Bolivia)

References

Riodinini Riodinidae of South America Butterflies described in 1758 Descriptions from Illustrations of Exotic Entomology Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Riodinidae-stub