Agradecimentos: We thank Mirna Casagrande, Eduardo Carneiro, Olaf Mielke for the access to material deposited in DZUP collection; Alexandre Soares for the access to material deposited in MNRJ collection; Márcio Félix, Felipe Moreira, and Claudia Rodrigues for the access to material deposited in CEIOC collection; Marcelo Duarte and Renato Silva for the access to material deposited in MZUSP collection; Thomas Pape for the access to material deposited in ZMUC; Tobias Malm for the access to material deposited in NHRS; To Carlos Guilherme Costa Mielke, Max Peters, Carlos Roberto Silva Silva and Jalmirez Silva that provided personal observation / and or photos of some live species in their habitats. To all people who provided data of D. creusa and D. rusina in iNaturalist website. To Alexandre Antonelli, Thomas Berg and RPPN Bacchus staff for sharing their place to our field work. To Junia Carrera and André Tacioli for their help in field work. To an anonymous reviewer and Dr. Ângelo Pinto for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript; RRS was supported by FAPESP (2020/09595-0). EPB was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP (2012/03750-8, 2016/15873-8 and 2018/21432-0) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (162673/2020-5). AHBR and PAM thanks the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brazil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001. PAM thanks Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP (2021/13396-6). AVLF thanks (FAPESP) (BIOTA-FAPESP grants 2013/50297-0, 2021/03868-8) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (421248/2017-3, 304291/2020-0). This publication is part of the "RedeLep – Rede Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Lepidópteros" – SISBIOTA-Brasil/CNPq (563332/2010-7). Butterfly species are registered in the SISGEN (A842AC0) Ver menos

Abstract: Dasyophthalma includes five species of medium-sized butterflies, all endemic from the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. All known species are univoltine and are dayflying, differently from other Brassolini that are mostly crepuscular. In despite of recent advances little is known about their natural history. Three out of the five species are included in the Brazilian Red List of threatened fauna and are of conservation concern. The present study provides for the first time a phylogenetic assessment of all Dasyophthalma species based on a molecular approach based on three loci. Also, the taxonomic status of D. rusina delanira was revised based on molecular data. In addition, up-to-date distributional data and conservation aspects of the threatened species from the genus are presented and discussed. The molecular phylogenetic analysis supports the monophyly of Dasyophthalma, with Dynastor darius as its sister-group, and, combined with a genetic divergence analysis, supported Dasyophthalma delanira stat. rest. as a valid name to species-level, sister-group to D. geraensis (and not a subspecies of D. rusina). The geographical range (extent of occurrence and area of occupancy) for all five species are presented, showing that these are very restricted for D. delanira stat. rest. and D. geraensis, following the distributions of the high-altitude forests. As much biological information about the genus is lacking, the present study can serve as a starting point for future studies on Dasyophthalma, adding information that can be crucial for future conservation actions and essential to assure the future of the threatened species in this genus Ver menos