wingspan :
this butterfly is obviously Altinote (hilaris ?) desmiala female, but :
1 - we found it just below the mountain pass on the Loja-Zamora road, very far from its known range,
2 - and a few hundred meters from a spot where we collected several Altinote hilaris arcoiris.
in Ecuador we always found A. hilaris desmiala in the North, from the NW, Nono/Tandayapa, and the NE, la Bonita, down to the upper Pastaza valley (it could also fly in Colombian deep South).
and farther South,
- from the Macas-Atillo road to the rio Paute Valley a seemingly undescribed ssp,
- around Loja A. hilaris arcoiris.
- farther South, Yangana and Northern Peru, ssp sourakovi.
so everything looked perfectly clear, but this specimen does shake today's certainties, and obviously we should consider that desmiala may not be a ssp of hilaris ?
see : https://www.andean-butterflies-mapping-the-phenotypes.eu/acraeidae/altinote-hilaris/
