O. Merkl szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 68. (Budapest, 2007)

Biology - At the moment of capture, the male collected did not show the hilltopping behavior typical of other members of this genus. The larval host plants and the nectar sources of the adults are unknown. Distribution - Spatial: The species is known actually from southern Ecuadorian provinces Azuay/Morona-Santiago and Loja at 3300 m (Fig. 30). Temporal: Known only from December. Etymology - The species name is composed from the names of the closely related congeners "amatista" and "balzapamba" indicating the intermediate position of the taxon. Discussion - Penaincisalia amatamba has similar wingshape to that of Abloxurina amatista. Additionally, the P. amatamba female has dorsally blue basal hue like the female of A. amatista (Figs 1-4). Because of these characters plus the shape of the male genital valva resembling also that of A. amatista (Figs 18-20) the newly described P. amatamba can be regarded as an intermediate taxon between the lineages of the amatista species group (Abloxurina s. str.) and the P. balzapamba-P. ismaeli species pair. Despite these resemblances, P. amatamba appears to be more closely related to P. balzapamba and P. ismaeli than A. amatista because these three species share the following characters we think also important for detecting their relationships: Character 1 : male dorsal forewing androconia comprise a large oval scent pad, there is no additional element (Figs, 3,5,16,18). The dorsal forewing androconia comprise only a large scent pad in the apical area of the discal cell, and the additional scent patch at the erection of vein M3 typical for the Penaincisalia lineage is missing. This character is in contrast with the "traditional" bipartite "Penaincisalia" androconia (see JOHNSON 1990: 99). The bipartite Penaincisalia androconia can be a result of specialisation from an ancestral large scent pad, but similarly the large oval scent pad can also be explained as a specialization, which results the extension of the androconia surface on the wings fusing the small scent patch and the scent pad into a larger but single organ. This latter explanation is in harmony with the findings of HALL & HARVEY (2002), who pointed out that riodinid specialized scales are rarely lost it they appeared in a given lineage. Character 2: ventral hindwing ground colour brown with a gray basal disc (Figs 3-8). This character is also unique in "Penaincisalia". However certain Abloxurina taxa tends to have lost the pinkish ventral wing colour and the basal and medial elements of the patterns are united in a similar basal disc with the notable difference that the medial wavy pattern remains and reaches the hindwing costa (BÁLINT, in prep.).