Notes on the genus Psychonotis (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) from Western New Guinea (Papua and Papua Barat), with description of a new subspecies of P. melane (Joicey & Talbot, 1916)
Author
Schröder, Stefan
Auf dem Rosenhügel 15, 50997 Köln, Germany email: ste. schroeder @ gmx. net
text
Sugapa Digital
2019
2019-02-03
11
2
79
86
journal article
10.19269/sugapa2019.11(2).04
6dad1ad1-ae87-432f-afc7-5a1635ca6d47
2468-872X
3832901
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FCA5AD47-115E-4CFB-9DDD-7308F7B61E03
Psychonotis caelius dissimilis
(
Joicey & Talbot, 1916
)
stat. nov.
(Figs 23-24)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:
D2DA16BA-3199-4A40-80DA-F2F7A39DF910
Thysonotis dissimilis
Joicey & Talbot, 1916b: 76
, pl. 3 figs 7-8.
The Schouten Islands (Numfor, Biak, Supiori) race of
Psychonotis caelius
was described as
Thysonotis dissimilis
(
Joicey & Talbot, 1916
)
, but this taxon was generally overlooked and questionably included in
Danis
Fabricius, 1807
.
P. caelius dissimilis
is a small subspecies, with a wing length of
16-18mm
, indicating at first sight that it rather belongs to
Psychonotis
than to
Danis
, because species of the latter genus are much larger than
Psychonotis
. In the original description,
dissimilis
was compared with
hebes
Druce, 1904 and
eudocia
Druce & Bethune-Baker, 1893
, both assigned to
Psychonotis
. The short yellow streak along the forewing costa at the wing base (present in
P.eudocia
, Figs 25-26) is missing.
Psychonotis caelius dissimilis
is an island race, differing from mainland
caelius
in having the white band on the hindwing much broader and more curved, following the wing shape. The blue costal streak on the forewing is reduced and the greenish-blue lunules on the hindwing are narrowed. Males from Biak and Supiori show the hindwing underside white bands clearly broader than in nominate
caelius
, but male genitalia do not significantly differ from those of
caelius
and therefore
dissimilis
is regarded here as a subspecies.
Distribution
: Confined to the islands Biak and Supiori,
Papua
,
Indonesia
.