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| Lycaenidae sp.nova by Sidnei Dantas |
As most of you already know, Cristalino Jungle Lodge in northern Mato Grosso at the southern edge of the Amazonian rainforest is one of my favourite places in the world, having spent almost two years of my life guiding there. Work commitments mean that I've not been back since 2018 but I stay in touch via a group chat with the lodge's guides, who regularly send me pictures of butterflies to identify. Most of the photographs are either of common species or terribly difficult genera which are virtually impossible to identify to species level. On New Year's Eve, however, I received the above picture, with a comment by the local butterfly biologist which read "Interesting, maybe Stephen knows". Normally, I would at least have a clue of the genus but this one had me confused as it showed diagnostic features of both Calycopis and Strephonota but didn't seem to fit either and, after several hours of searching the Internet, I hadn't been able to come up with anything remotely like it. I thus forwarded it to a few international experts, all of whom seem to agree it is a new, undescribed species! The Cristalino reserve is the most well-studied area in the whole of the southern (if not the entire) Amazon yet the fact that new species are still being discovered there by casual observers simply taking photographs around the lodge is phenomenal and really goes to show just how much we still have to learn about the Amazon rainforest and its incredible biodiversity.
