S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 63. (Budapest, 2002)
Description - Moderately sized lycaenids with typical fore wing length (from base of radial vein to terminus of vein R3) more than 20 mm; sexual dimorphism strong. Male: Wing shape: fore wing costa convex, apex pointed, distal and anal margin straight; hind wing costa convex, apex rounded, distal margin highly convex, lobate, inner margin convex and also with lobe, vein CuA 1 terminus arched, vein CuA2 terminus tailed. Venation: four fore wing radial veins. Basally and distally pointed or rounded androconial cluster present in the apex of discal cell. Dorsal surface: fore wing ground colour blue with very narrow outer margin and distal fringe brown; hind wing similar to fore wing but with black tail at vein CuA2 terminus, plus tornai and anal marginal lobes. Ventral surface: fore wing ground colour as on dorsum but with suffusion of brown scaling, androconial cluster visible, hind wing ground colour warm brown with vivid submedian intercellular green lines below, extending from costal cell to inner margin but covered with long brown hairs; postmedian pattern vertical with a vivid continuous green line and a lighter submarginal line; tornai area, wing lobes and tail dark brown. Body gleaming green dorsally, brown ventrally. Genitalia: uncus heavily sclerotized and broad, gnathos long and pointed, tegumen separated from vinculum by sclerotized dorsal rim, vinculum weakly sclerotized and widest where fused to tegumen, vincular saccus long, valval posterior part heavily sclerotized, anteriorly membranous with a conspicuous pointed distal projection the length of saccus; aedeagus very long and laterally curvate with the caecum comprising about 1/3 of the aedeagus length, vesica with a single cornutus. Female: wings differ from male in following ways: fore wing distal margin convex, hind wing veins on dorsal surface blackened and wing with wide black marginal border, vein CuAl with short filamental tail, hind wing with ventral submedian line more conspicuous. Genitalia: bursa membranous, signa absent, cervix bursae unsclerotized, ductus bursae tubular with a pair of anterior flaps and a large, heavily sclerotized, posterior lamella. Etymology - A noun, gender considered to be masculine, from arbitrary combination of "margarita" (junior synonymic name of the type species, see below) and "Thecla", a generic name traditionally but erroneously used in the neotropics since [Doubleday] (1847: 30-40) and particularly, for one and a half decades, for such large and tailed eumaeines as danaus et al. (see Eliot 1973: 429^30 and 439-440). Systematic position - The genus belongs to a group of eumaeine genera with strong sexual dimorphism, a prominently striped vertical hind wing pattern and females possessing a tubular ductus bursae with a large sclerotized pouch-like lamella antevaginalis (see Discussion). Biology - Museum label data indicate that these uncommon insects occur in montane Andean cloud forest ecotones at elevations of 1800-1900 m. Ecuadorian
