This is the first record of Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) damaging fruits of ilama (Annona diversifolia) and extends the butterfly distribution for three states in Mexico.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP

CASTAÑEDA-VILDÓZOLA, A

DUARTE, M

FRANCO-MORA, O

HERNÁNDEZ-FUENTES, LM

NAVA-DÍAZ, C

Universidade de São Paulo

Neotropical Entomology

New host plant records for Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in Mexico

Biblioteca Digital da Produção Intelectual da Universidade de São Paulo (BDPI/USP)

512 Neotrop Entomol 40(4): 512-514 © 2011 Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil
Neotropical Entomology
journal homepage: www.scielo.br/ne
ISSN: 1519-566X
SCIENTIFIC NOTE
New Host Plant Records for Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) (Lepidoptera: 
Lycaenidae) in Mexico 
A CÝãÇ-V®½ÌþÊ½1, C Nò-D°þ2, M DçÙã3, O FÙÄÊ-MÊÙ1, LM HÙÄÄþ-
FçÄãÝ4
1Centro de InvesƟ gación y Estudios Avanzados en Fitomejoramiento, Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado 
de México, Campus El Cerrillo, Toluca, Estado de México, México 
2Colegio de Posgraduados, Campus Montecillo, Montecillo, Texcoco, Estado de México, México 3Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de 
São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil 
4INIFAP – Campo Experimental SanƟ ago Ixcuintla, SanƟ ago Ixcuintla, Nayarit, México
Keywords
Biology, Eumaeini, fruit borer insect, immature 
stage
Correspondence
A½òÙÊ CÝãÇ V®½ÌþÊ½, Centro de 
Investigación y Estudios Avanzados en 
Fitomejoramiento, Facultad de Ciencias 
Agrícolas, Univ Autónoma del Estado de 
México, Campus el Cerrillo, Toluca, Estado 
de México, 50200, México; acastanedav@
uaemex.mx
Edited by  Takumasa Kondo – CORPOICA
Received 03 June 2010 and accepted 27 
August 2010
Abstract
This is the ϐirst record of Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) damaging 
fruits of ilama (Annona diversifolia) and extends the butterϐly 
distribution for three states in Mexico.
Peña & Bennett (1995) reported 296 species of Neotropical 
insects associated with Annona (Annonaceae), among them, 
the borers, such as Bephratelloides cubensis (Ashmead) 
(Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae), Cerconota anonella (Sepp) 
(Lepidoptera: Elachistidae), and Oenomaus ortygnus 
(Cramer) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), are the main pests 
causing economically important damages to the crops. 
Oenomaus ortygnus is a relatively large hairstreak 
butterϐly found in wet and dry lowland forests from 
southern Texas throughout Central America to Southern 
Brazil (Godman & Salvin 1887-1901, Fennah 1937, Clench 
1964, Domínguez-Gil 1978, Coto & Saunders 2001, Faynel 
2006). This species may be readily distinguished from 
other Oenomaus included in the O. atena group (Faynel 
2006, 2008) by genitalic characters and by an iridescent 
aquamarine color above and a pinkish-gray or bluish-gray 
ventral pattern with a distinctive black basal spot and 
extensive blue along lower margin (Fig 1d), which may 
vary geographically. Despite its widespread distribution, 
the species is uncommon in some localities, but occurs 
throughout the year, and since some species of Annona 
produce fruits throughout the year (Janick & Paull 2008), 
O. ortygnus may be found most of the year (January to 
November in Mexico, see Opler et al 2010).
Oenomaus ortygnus has been found in 12 states of 
Mexico (Fig 2) (Godman & Salvin 1887-1901, Kendall 
1975, Raguso & Llorente-Bousquets 1990). The report of 
Kendall (1975) of females ovipositing and larvae feeding 
on the fruits of Annona globiϔlora Schltdl. (Annonaceae) 
in Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, is the only information 
513
Castañeda-Vildózola et al
Neotrop Entomol 40(4): 512-514 © 2011 Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil
New Host Plant Records for Oenomaus ortygnus in Mexico
Fig 1 Oenomaus ortygnus. a) 
Ilama fruits (A . diversifolia 
Saf ford)  showing typical 
necrosis induced by the larvae of 
O. ortygnus; b) Necrosis removal 
facilitates detection of larva that 
fed on fruit pulp and immature 
seeds; c) Obtecta pupae that was 
formed on the fruit surface and 
inside dried fruits; d) Adult of O. 
ortygnus in lateral view.
Fig 2 Map of distribution of 
Oenomaus ortygnus in Mexico.
1 cm
5 
m
m
5 cm
a
c
b
d
5 mm
United States of America
Pacifi c Ocean
Guatemala
0 W E
N
115
115
35 35
25 25
30 30
20 20
15 15
95
95
105
105
85
85
110
110
90
90
100
100
S
900 km
Belize
Gulf of Mexico
available so far for Mexico. To update the status of this 
pest in Mexico, we inspected the most important Annona 
growing areas from March 2008 to February 2009. 
Five fruits of Annona reticulata L. that showed damage 
by O. ortygnus were collected in March 2008 in Tepalcingo, 
Morelos (18°35’N, 98°50’W, elevation 1169 m). Six fruits 
of A. diversifolia Safford with the same damages were 
found in September 2008 in Cacahuamilapa, Guerrero 
(18°40’N, 99°30’W, elevation 1163 m). Three fruits of A. 
reticulata were attacked by O. ortygnus in February 2009 
in Zacapala, Puebla (18°35’N, 98°03’W, elevation 1254 m). 
Collected fruits were placed in plastic containers (40 x 
514 Neotrop Entomol 40(4): 512-514 © 2011 Sociedade Entomológica do Brasil
Castañeda-Vildózola et alNew Host Plant Records for Oenomaus ortygnus in Mexico
21 x 12 cm) and covered with cheesecloth so that adults 
could not escape. The samples were incubated at 26 ± 1°C 
and relative humidity of 50%. Five adults of O. ortygnus, 
from larvae reared on these fruits, emerged in the lab. 
Although the presence of O. ortygnus has been often 
noticed on bullock heart (A. reticulata L.), soursop (A. 
muricata L.) and cherimola (A. cherimola Mill.) (Domínguez-
Gil 1978, Calvo 1998, Coto & Saunders 2001, Beccaloni et 
al 2008), we found no evidence that this butterϐly damaged 
soursop and cherimola in our surveys. We visited orchards 
in Las Varas, Nayarit (21°11’N, 105°08’W, elevation 40 m) 
and Coatepec Harinas, Estado de México (18°45’N, 99°45’W, 
elevation 2119 m) in July, August, and November 2008, 
other insect pests were recorded attacking A. muricata 
as B. cubensis and Talponia batesi Heinrich (Lepidoptera: 
Tortricidae) on cherimola, respectively. 
All fruits of A. reticulata and A. diversifolia attacked by 
O. ortygnus showed necrosis (Fig 1a). Larvae are usually 
found under the dead tissue (Fig 1b), feeding on the fruit 
pulp. One to ϐive larvae may be found per fruit. In the 
laboratory pupation occurred on the external surface 
of the fruit (Fig 1c) as observed by Calvo (1998) with a 
population of O. ortygnus at the Estación Experimental 
Santa Lúcia, Barva, Heredia, Costa Rica. 
The present report increases the knowledge about 
O. ortygnus in two ways: it adds a new record of Annona 
as larval host plant and extends the known distribution 
of the butterϐly for the Morelos state in Mexico. Adults 
were deposited in the fruit pest collection at Fundación 
Salvador Sánchez Colín CICTAMEX, S.C., Coatepec Harinas, 
Estado de México, México.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge Dr. Robert K. Robbins (National 
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution) for 
important comments, corrections, and for reviewing 
the manuscript. For sharing with us information on the 
geographical distribution of O. ortygnus in Mexico, we 
thank Dr. Jorge Llorente-Bousquets, Dr. Moisés Armando 
Luis-Martínez, Dr. Isabel Vargas-Fernández (Museo de 
Zoología “Alfonso L. Herrera”, Departamento de Biología 
Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional 
Autónoma de México), and Dr. Robert K. Robbins. For 
ϐinancial support, MD thanks Fundação de Amparo à 
Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo/ FAPESP (as part of 
the project “Systematics, Bionomy, and Evolution of 
Neotropical Lepidoptera – process number 02/13898-0) 
and Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa of the Universidade de São 
Paulo/USP/Projeto 1 and M. Sc. Jorge Váldez-Carrasco for 
helping with the illustrations. Thanks also to anonymous 
reviewers for valuable comments. 
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This is the first record of Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) damaging fruits of ilama (Annona diversifolia) and extends the butterfly distribution for three states in Mexico

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New host plant records for Oenomaus ortygnus (Cramer) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in Mexico

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