Sebastian Padron

University of Azuay · Department of Biology

Aim: Geographic distributions are driven by a combination of species sensitivity and exposure to climate. We quantified colour lightness, a trait that mediates the interaction between sensitivity and exposure, of diverse butterfly communities to test whether colour lightness is associated with community assembly across climate‐elevation gradients....

Insects are a dominant part of the megadiversity of the Tropical Andes but monitoring and studying them has been challenging. Here we employ colored pan trap method for collecting insects (Diptera and Hymenoptera) in the Andes of Ecuador in order to explore the use of the colored pan traps method. Sixty white, yellow, and blue colored pan traps wer...

The first phylogenetic hypotheses for the high Andean satyrine butterfly genus Altopedaliodes is proposed based on sequence data from mitochondrial (COI and COII) and nuclear (EF-1α) genes. Four species previously included in the genus were found not to be closely related to the clade containing the type species for Altopedaliodes, and these specie...

Warning signals are well known in the visual system, but rare in other modalities. Some moths produce ultrasonic sounds to warn bats of noxious taste or to mimic unpalatable models. Here, we report results from a long-term study across the globe, assaying moth response to playback of bat echolocation. We tested 252 genera, spanning most families of...

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have diversified via coevolution with plants and in response to dispersals following key geological events. These hypotheses have been poorly tested at the macroevolutionary scale because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets on global distributions and larval...

This study describes the natural history and multitrophic interactions of the highly restricted Andean butterfly species Catasticta truncata (Lathy & Rosenberg, 1912) from the urban and surrounding areas of Loja in southern Ecuador. The immature stages of the butterfly are described and illustrated, and the host plant is identified as Phoradendron...

This study describes the immature stages, host plant, and interactions with parasitoid wasps of the butterfly Phoebis argante, a very widely distributed species, commonly found in the dry forest ecotone of the western Andes in Azuay province, Ecuador. The development time from oviposition to adult averaged 48 days. The host plant is identified as I...

Orchid bees are a conspicuous and ecologically important group of insects, commonly distributed at medium and low altitudes in tropical ecosystems. Therefore, new recordings of orchid bees at higher altitudes are interesting. Here we report the presence of two species of orchid bees in urban and peri-urban environments within the inter-Andean valle...

The Catasticta poujadei group, within the subgenus Hesperochoia Reissinger, is revised. Two new species, C. copernicus Pyrcz & Fåhraeus sp. nov., and C. buszkoi Boyer & Pyrcz sp. nov. occurring near the timberline in Junín and Apurímac are described. Catasticta eximia Röber is reinstated as a species separate from C. poujadei, and a new subspecies,...

Las colecciones biológicas son fundamentales para el entendimiento y conservación de la biodiversidad de un país. Esto es aún más necesario para países megadiversos como Ecuador. En esta publicación se reporta información de 3744 especímenes pertenecientes a 456 especies depositadas en el MZUA. Los mamíferos están representados en siete órdenes, 19...

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are la...

Recent years saw an increased interest in biodiversity research regarding green spaces in urban areas around the globe. Wildlife studies of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) in urban semi-natural habitats provide key information towards developing conservation strategies for such areas. This is especially true considering the charismatic asp...

Recent years saw an increased interest in biodiversity research regarding green spaces in urban areas around the globe. Wildlife studies of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) in urban semi-natural habitats provide key information towards developing conservation strategies for such areas. This is especially true considering the charismatic asp...

Here, we untangle an oversight surrounding the application of the name Papilio marcus Fabricius, 1787 (Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae), currently in Troyus Warren & Turland, 2012, which has eluded taxonomists for nearly two centuries. First, we note that P. marcus is a junior primary homonym of Papilio marcus Schaller, 1785, a species currently in Morpho...

Este catálogo tiene como objetivo identificar los principales insectos plaga encontrados en maíz suave y fréjol arbustivo en condiciones de almacenamiento. Las infestaciones por insectos provocan entre un 5% a 10% de la pérdida de alimentos almacenados. En el presente documento son reportadas 14 especies de insectos plaga, de los cuales 11, 2 y 1 e...

Pollinator foraging fidelity (i.e., consistent and repeated visitation to a particular plant species or area) is poorly understood for most bee species, but is important information for both the conservation of plant and pollinator species and the ecosystem services they provide to humans. We used plant–pollinator surveys and mark–recapture of flor...

Invasive ant species are a serious threat to native fauna, especially in highly diverse tropical countries. Therefore, new distribution reports and information on the interactions with other species are essential to understand the potential effects of invasive ants on biodiversity. Here we report for the first time the presence of colonies of Monom...

S Feather chewing lice are common and important ectoparasites of birds. Here we report for the first time the presence of the ectoparasite, Colpocephalum trichosum Harrison1916 (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae on the Andean condor Vultur gryphus Linnaeus, 1758 from the North high Andes of Ecuador in Pichincha province. A total of 20 louse specimens were...

Warning signals are well known in the visual system, but rare in other modalities. Some moths produce ultrasonic sounds to warn bats of noxious taste or to mimic unpalatable models. Here we report results from a long-term study across the globe, assaying moth response to playback of bat echolocation. We tested 252 genera, spanning most families of...

Catasticta lycurgus is a striking endemic butterfly, restricted to high elevation habitats in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range separate from the Andes in the north of Colombia. The type, which for almost a hundred years was the only known specimen, was collected in 1878 by Frederick Simons in the vicinity of Atánquez and...

The presence of the parasitic wasp Horismenus liturgusae Hansson & Schoeninger, 2014 is recorded for the first time in Ecuador. This new record significantly expands the known distributional range of the species by more than 2000 km west of its type locality in Manaus, Brazil. In addition, the Neotropical bark mantid Liturgusa maya Saussure & Zehnt...

El ectoparasitismo es un tipo de relación simbiótica negativa en la que el hospedador es afectado por la presencia del parásito. Aquí, reportamos por primera vez un caso de ectoparasitismo de la mosca piojo Ornithoctona erythrocephala en Elaenia albiceps, en los Andes del sur de Ecuador a más de 2.600 m de altitud. Se describe la especie ectoparási...

As part of a series of papers focusing on the description of immature stages of the genus Catasticta Butler, 1870, we here describe for the first time the immature stages of the high Andean butterfly Catasticta incerta incerta (Dognin, 1888), from Azuay province in southern Ecuador. The host plant was identified as an aerial hemi-parasitic mistleto...

Se reporta por primera vez para el Ecuador, la presencia de Dinocampus coccinellae (Schrank, 1802) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), avispa endoparasitoide cosmopolita que se especializa en parasitar especies de la familia Coccinellidae. Se identifica como hospedante a Hippodamia convergens Guérin-Méneville, 1842 (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Además, se de...

We describe for the first time the immature stages of the Ecuadorian endemic urban butterfly, Catasticta flisa duna Eitschberger & Racheli, from Quito, Ecuador. A mistletoe species, Phoradendron nervosum Oliv. (Viscaceae), is identified as the host plant. Phoradendron nervosum is an aerial-stem hemiparasite in the order Santalales that is parasitic...

Immature stages of Lymanopoda caracara Pyrcz, Willmott & Hall, an endemic butterfly from the paramo life zone in the Andes of Ecuador, are described and compared with those of Lymanopoda schmidti Adams from Colombia. Larval morphology is illustrated for four instars. Drawings of head chaetotaxy and setal maps are provided for the first time for the...

Resumen. Pseudopogonogaster hebardi es un mántido polifénico neotropical que se mimetiza con el microhábitat en el que vive, su distribución está restringida a los ecosistemas altoandinos del sur de Ecuador. Se describen macho y hembra, estados ninfales y ooteca de la especie. Se registra y describe por primera vez dos casos de parasitismo ejercido...

L a inmensa mayoría de los millones de flores y frutos que vemos, olemos, comemos y utilizamos, para su génesis siempre dependen de los polinizadores: agentes que llevan el polen de una flor hasta otra para fertilizarla. Estos polinizadores pueden ser vertebrados (aves y murciélagos, entre los principales) o invertebrados, en particular los insecto...

We here describe and name a distinctive new pierid species in the subfamily Pierinae, Catasticta sibyllae Nakahara, Padrón & MacDonald, n. sp. from western Panama. Catasticta. sibyllae n. sp. is known from only two male specimens collected at two sites which are approximately 130 km apart in western Panama. This new species is the only species in t...

A checklist of Euglossini in Ecuador is given, including all currently described, valid species collected until 2018. The list has been assembled from museum records, fieldwork cited herein, and literature. The former species lists are nearly doubled here, with 1 Aglae , 23 Eufriesea , 68 Euglossa , 18 Eulaema , and 5 Exaerete, 115 in total with >...

Diagnosis: In comparison with C. fulva anaranjada n. ssp., C. fulva fulva Joicey & Rosenberg, 1915 has dorsal and ventral FW and HW spots that are hazel-brown colored and suffused with brown scales, while C. fulva kentae F. Brown & Goodson, 1940 has dorsal and ventral FW and HW spots that are yellowish light brown. Both C. fulva fulva and C. fulva...