A new Polythrix from Central America (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae)

Polythrix kanshul is described as a new species.It differs from its nearest relative, P. metallescens in several details of wing pattern and in many genitalic characters.These two species, along with P. eudoxus , form a monophyletic lineage defined by the morphology of the uncus.Polythrix kanshul in known from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico and Bayano, Panama.The genus Polythrix is distributed from the southern border of the United States south to Argentina with the bulk of the 15 recognized species found in Central America and northern South America (Evans 1952).Freeman ( 1979) recorded six species in Mexico and provided a key to their identification while Llorente, et al, (1990) listed seven species.While identifying material from southern Mexico, I realized that a new species of Polythrix was present in the sample.My purpose here is to describe it and to document its relationship with other species in the genus.Polythrix kanshul , Shuey New species Diagnosis of male: The wing pattern (Figures 1-4) ofP.kanshul is very similar to P. metallescens (Mabille) (Figures 5-8) with the following exceptions: the ground color of P. kanshul is darker brown and the dorsal metallic blue-green body and hindwing scaling is brighter than in P. metallescens ; P. kanshul has four apical spots, P. metallescens has three; and ventrally, the narrow white discal band on the hindwing is shorter in P. kanshul , extending only between veins 2 A and Cu 2 while in P. metallescens this band extends between veins 2A and Sc+R r A cblor photograph of P. metallescens can be found in Lewis (1973).