pictures courtesy of K R Willmott
the taxonomic history of Hypoleria alema is one of many changes, Ithomia or Hypoleria, species, subspecies, forms ; our idea is not to revisit the whole process, but only, to get a clearer picture, to emphasize an important twist :
- it became common practice - particularly in d'Abrera 1984 - to call specimens with orange markings on the HW "form macasana"
- when "Ithomia macasana", described by Strand in 1916, has no orange at all, and, as a matter of fact looks almost exactly like "Hypoleria alema negrina" described two years later.
hence, at this time we believe we have, in Ecuador:
- Hypoleria alema ina típica - with orange on the HW, maybe scarce, present in the SE, at least between Loja and Zamora
- Hypoleria alema ina f. macasana - with no orange on the HW, present at least from Morona Santiago to Zamora, and we "forget" negrina
- Hypoleria alema pastaza, recently described - with an orange marking and a yellowish wash on the HW, present in an area limited by Archidona-Puyo-the upper Pastaza valley
- Hypoleria alema karschi - that we found between Tena, Archidona and Misahualli and which looks completely different with its yellow FW apex ; karschi is not visibly different from chrysodonia which flies farther East in the Amazon basin, they could be the same subspecies ?
this assumption is not completely satisfactory because, near Archidona, both ssp, karschi and pastaza, are sympatric ; but, looking carefully at Hypoleria alema karschi, or chrysodonia, one sees five strong features that are never present on the other alema ina : a-the wings general shape, b-the yellow FW apex, c-the yellow rim on the HWUN, d-the black color of the HW veins, e-the shape of space Cu2-Cu1 (FW) ; we would be surprised if they would not prove to be a distinct species. see https://www.noreste.eu/en/fiche-papillon/009-Ithomiidae/001-Ithomiinae/019-Godyridini/019-Hypoleria/045-alema/karschi
