A review of the genera Amauta Houlbert, 1918 and Divana J. Y. Miller, 1982 (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) with description of a new genus
Author
Worthy, Robert
0000-0003-0879-6472
10 The Hill, Church Hill, Caterham, Surrey CR 3 6 SD, U. K. castnia @ btopenworld. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0003 - 0879 - 6472 Austin Achieve Public Schools, Austin, Texas, (Research Associate, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity), USA.
castnia@btopenworld.com
Author
González, Jorge M.
Author
Zilli, Alberto
Natural History Museum, Insects Division, Cromwell Road, London SW 7 5 BD, U. K.
text
Zootaxa
2022
2022-10-06
5194
3
301
342
journal article
160070
10.11646/zootaxa.5194.3.1
6aa6dacd-1e74-46ac-a345-2fc691f92608
1175-5326
7154442
96B016A1-5D9B-4013-9F9D-597A6C2FC277
chiriquiensis
(Strand, 1913)
(
Figs. 11D–E
)
“
C. diva
[…] form
chiriquiensis
form. nov.
” Strand, 1913,
In:
Seitz, A. (Ed.),
Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde
6: 13, Pl. 6, row d.
Type material:
Strand (1913b)
wrote “Auffallend ist auch die starke Variabilität in der Grösse; von
chiriquiensis
liegen mir
♂♂
von
55—90 mm
vor (die Type ist
55 mm
)” [The variability in size is also remarkable, there are before me
♂♂
of
chiriquiensis
from
55 to 90 mm
(the type is
55 mm
)]; this means that the “
holotype
” can be narrowed down thanks to its wingspan of
55 mm
, which is very unusual for this taxon.
An
original specimen with such a wingspan is in
MfN
and we consider it to be the
holotype
.
In
MfN
there are also three other males that appear to be those mentioned in the original description, which should therefore be considered as
paratypes
.
The
holotype
originally had a hand-written label reading “
Chiriqui
Trötsch”, a pink “Type” label and a
Strand
determination label, this can be seen on an old photograph (
Gerardo Lamas
, pers. comm.), however, it was stolen together with many other types from
Berlin
some years ago by an unscrupulous dealer.
Several
years later a collection was given to the museum by the heirs of
Ernst Jugl
which contained many of the stolen specimens, which it is believed he bought from the dealer in question.
Unfortunately
, the original labels had been disposed of to hide their provenance.
The
55 mm-holotype of
chiriquiensis
now bears a green determination label like all these specimens, and typed labels with “
Chiriqui
”, “ex coll Ernst Jugl” and “ex coll Staudinger”. A male was found in
NHMUK
with the data “
Chiriqui
” and a
Strand
determination label, this may be another
paratype
, which would demonstrate that the original series was scattered, but there is no way to be sure
.
Type
locality:
Strand (1913b)
calls it a form from
Chiriquí
, so that is the
type
locality.
Chiriquí
is the name of a town, a volcano, and a province in south-west
Panama
.
Taxonomic status:
Originally described as a subspecies of
diva
and treated as such by
Miller (1995)
and
Lamas (1995)
, this nominal taxon is here synonymised with
Castnia diva diva
Butler, 1870
(
syn. nov.
), so it is a junior subjective synonym of that taxon (now in
Divana
).
Male genitalia
: Not available.
Distribution:
This taxon is found only in
Chiriquí province
,
Panama
. We have seen specimens from
Costa Rica
referred to as
ssp.
chiriquiensis
, but as we are unable to detect any differences in any of the Central American populations, this is irrelevant (
Fig. 16
).
Discussion:
There is a large series of
19 males
and
4 females
from
Panama
in NHMUK, along with
14 males
and
8 females
from other Central American countries including
two syntypes
of
diva diva
, we have also examined
31 males
and
8 females
from Central America in other collections. We can see no differences between specimens from
Chiriquí
and those from other Central American countries.
Material examined:
22 males
and
4 females
from
Panama
were examined for this study
.