env. male 38, female 50 mm
Mesosemia metuana is a highly variable species from Colombia to Peru (with a ssp in Bolivia) ; it had a number of subspecies, the majority of which have now been synonimised.
males are very variable, without any visible geographic criteria - the male on this "Northern form" page looks quite like ssp vargasi from Western Colombia.
but for females there clearly are two geographic zones for Ecuador alone : wide white stripes and angular hindwings in the North, and, in the South, hindwings getting rounder and showing a thin submarginal white line, and FW white stripes narrower until disappearing in Peru.
the limit between forms South and North is surprising, we found the Northern form from la Bonita to Cosanga (on d'Abrera there is a female from Sarayacu), and the Southern one at WildSumaco and farther down in Sangay NP, when these two locations, Sarayacu and WildSumaco, are roughly at the same latitude?
