Zalomes are a very interesting Genus of high elevation butterflies, but a Genus that is poorly known ; established in 1947, in 1955 it would comprise only two species (one of which, Wahydra kenava, was not even a Zalomes).
it is true that Zalomes are not common, are very localised, and all look the same, which does not make for easy identifications.
for a clearer picture we started from the genitalia of some of our specimens (dissected by Pierre Boyer), and came up with three interesting facts :
1 – out of eight species listed on BoA as flying in Ecuador we found seven : biforis, naco, cordillera, allynorum, banco, coto and wanda,
we didn't find conspícua (a poorly known species with no genitalia description), and merida and illimanensis do not fly in Ecuador
2 – we've found a new species with very specific genitalia, and flying all over Southern Ecuador, from Cuenca to Jimbura (200 km as the crow flies).
3 – we have observed that there is little sympatry among Zalomes species ; we have eleven different collecting sites where we caught a little more than 40 males, on only four of those eleven sites did we find two different Zalomes species, and we never found three on the same spot
