New Records of Cupido comyntas Godart (Lycaenidae, Polyommatinae) from the National Botanical Garden, Havana, Confirm Its Presence in Cuba

Cupido comyntas (Godart, [1824]) was first recorded in Cuba by Núñez (2015), who collected two male individuals in disturbed vegetation surrounding broadleaf semideciduous forests of “Las Maravillas de Viñales” pathway, Viñales, Pinar del Río province, on 4 July 2014. This author assigned the individuals to subspecies C. comyntas texana (Chermock, 1945) and stated that the record, from an inland locality, suggested a recent, successful colonization event of the species in Cuba from Yucatán. Two additional exemplars, one from the same locality and another from Los Pretiles, a coastal spot near 70 km northwest of Viñales, also in Pinar del Río province, both observed in 2015, were the last confirmed sightings of the butterfly in Cuba (Barro et al. 2020). The absence of further records during the following seven years apparently ruled out the possibility of its establishment in Cuba. In September 2021, 8 individuals of Cupido comyntas were spotted flying in disturbed vegetation on the edge of a broadleaf semideciduous forest, approximately 50 m to the west of the administrative facilities of the National Botanical Garden, Boyeros municipality, Havana province (23o 00' 18" N, 82o 34' 31" W). The butterflies were nectaring on Bidens pilosa L. (Asteraceae). Between February and March 2022, 3 males and 2 females were taken flying near the ground, on secondary vegetation to the east of the previous locality. All the observed individuals were found in disturbed habitats flying in company of several generalist Cuban butterflies, such as nymphalids Anartia jatrophae guantanamo (Munroe), Calisto herophile (Hübner), Dryas iulia nudeola (Bates), Phyciodes p. phaon (Edwards), Anthanassa f. frisia (Poey), the pierid Ascia monuste eubotea (Godart) and the similar blue species Leptotes cassius theonus (Lucas). The specimens were deposited in the collection of the Museo “Felipe Poey” and the personal collection of Yosiel Álvarez (Fig. 1). These new records provide the third known locality for the species in Cuba. The observation of several individuals of both sexes, some of them fresh, on an inland locality, more than 150 km to the east of Viñales, confirm its establishment on the island. The absence of additional records since 2015 could be explained by the similarity of C. comyntas to other Cuban Polyommatinae, such as Leptoptes cassius theonus, Hemiargus ceraunus filenus (Poey) and Cyclargus a. ammon (Lucas), which are indistinguishable in flight from the subject species. These species are widespread in Cuba (Alayo & Hernández 1987; Smith et al. 1994; Barro et al. 2020) and sympatric with C. comyntas at the known localities. Furthermore, the phenology of C. comyntas in tropical areas remains unknown, making impossible to assess if the absence of records was due to a temporal scarcity of the species in the areas between the known localities. Examination of wing color pattern of the observed specimens, in comparison to those provided by the Butterflies of America website (Warren et al. 2022), identify them as the subspecies C. comyntas texana,