Generic Revision Of The Dioptinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Notodontidae) Part 2: Josiini
Author
Miller, James S
text
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
2009
2009-06-30
2009
321
675
1022
http://dx.doi.org/10.1206/321.1-1
journal article
10.1206/321.1-1
0003-0090
Ephialtias consueta
(Walker) Plate
29
Josia consueta
Walker, 1854: 304
.
TYPE
LOCALITY
:
Brazil
, Pará.
TYPE
:
Holotype
♀
(
BMNH
).
Josia lugens
C. and
R
.
Felder, 1874
: pl. 105, fig. 22.
TYPE
LOCALITY
: [Not known].
TYPE
:
Holotype
♀
, ‘‘Bates’’, ex Felder
Collection (
BMNH
).
DISCUSSION
:
Ephialtias consueta
is known exclusively from
two females
—Walker’s
holotype
(pl. 29) and the Felder
holotype
of
lugens
—both at the BMNH. Careful examintion reveals the presence in
E. consueta
of faint white spots along the abdominal dorsum, an important characteristic of
Ephialtias
. Furthermore, I dissected the female type of
lugens
C. and R. Felder. There is no locality data on that specimen, but a handwritten label gives Bates as the collector. It was therefore, in all probability, collected on the Amazon. The Felder type of
lugens
matches the type of
consueta
with precision; the two are undoubtedly synonyms, as
Prout (1918)
had proposed. My dissection (JSM-1545) confirms membership of
consueta
, formerly in
Josia
(
Prout, 1918
;
Hering, 1925
;
Bryk, 1930
), in
Ephialtias
, where
Kirby (1892)
had placed it long ago.
Ephialtias consueta
is the only member of the genus in which the HW dorsal surface is completely dark, but the ventral surface shows a diffuse white region along the anal margin.
Prout (1918)
originally described
cassa
as a subspecies of
consueta
. It does not show this white ventral HW spot. I have instead moved
cassa
to its new position as a synonym of
Ephialtias pseudena
(appendix 2).
DISTRIBUTION
:
Brazil
(BMNH).
DISSECTED
:
♀
holotype
of
lugens
, BMNH
(genitalia slide no. JSM-1545).
Ephialtias dorsispilota
Warren
,
revised status