''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 biogeogra ...

metalmark butterfly. It is the type species of its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 1,532 species are placed in 146 genera. Although mostly Neotropical in distribution, ...

. 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 considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

''Riodina''
funet.fi and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

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 Fauna of Suriname Butterflies of the Caribbean Lepidoptera of Brazil Lepidoptera of Venezuela Lepidoptera of Ecuador Lepidoptera of Peru Lepidoptera of Bolivia Lepidoptera of Colombia {{Riodinidae-stub