A distinctive new subspecies of Moschoneura pinthous (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae: Dismorphiinae) from the Orinoco Delta, Venezuela, with comments on the species-level taxonomy

A new subspecies of Moschoneura pinthous (Linnaeus, 1758), M. p. carmenae Neild \& Losada, ssp. nov., is described from the Orinoco Delta in north-eastern Venezuela. The adults, male genitalia, and DNA barcode sequences are documented and compared with neighboring M. p. pinthous from southern Venezuela and the Guianas, and with M. pinthous subspecies from the upper Amazon basin. For the new subspecies, we provide observations and images of its habitat, and discuss flight behavior and possible mimetic associations. Based on the DNA sequence data and observations of analogous pattern variation within comimetic butterfly species, we restore the subspecies status of Moschoneura pinthous ithomia (Hewitson, 1867), stat. rev.