A review of the genus Insigniocastnia J. Y. Miller, 2007 (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) with notes on Castnia amalthaea H. Druce, 1890
Author
Worthy, Robert
Author
González, Jorge M.
Author
Ríos, Sergio D.
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-01-24
4550
2
277
288
journal article
27486
10.11646/zootaxa.4550.2.8
1d427a64-f8f0-48b6-a963-a652a5af4d2e
1175-5326
2625369
F75EFE23-9ED5-4125-A2BC-653E648E8C9E
bogota
(Strand, 1912)
“
Castnia bogota
n. sp.
” Strand, 1912:
Archiv fur Naturgeschichte
77
(
I.4
): 99.
Type material:
Strand (1912) described the taxon from a single male in Niepelt’s collection; the specimen is the
holotype
by monotypy. It is now in NHMW (
Lamas 1995a
) (
Figs. 17, 18
).
.
Type
locality:
Given by Strand (1912) as “
Bogota
”. The specimen has no labels which could illuminate this further. Unfortunately, during the 19
th
and early 20
th
centuries it was customary for collectors to be sent material of flora and fauna with a collecting locality of only “
Nueva Granada
”, “
Colombia
” or “
Bogota
”, even though they could have been collected over a wide area of
Colombia
; they invariably used this as the collecting locality without question.
Bogota
was the city where most plant or animal specimens were gathered before being sent to other parts of the world; thus it was a very frequently used collecting locality (
Freile &
Córdoba
2008
;
González
et al.
2013a
). The specimen came from the collection of Friedrich Wilhelm Niepelt (
1862–1936
) (Strand 1912, 1914), an entomologist and insect dealer, who collected insects in the “interior" of
Ecuador
(1906) and in
Colombia
(probably the same year) (
González
et al
. 2013b
; Strand 1932; Strand 1938; G. Lamas, pers. comm.) He also received, traded or bought insects from those South American countries from other dealers and collectors.
Lamas (1995b)
mentions that the
type
specimen was not collected from “
Bogota
” but from a place at a lower altitude. The locality label is therefore unreliable.
Several taxa have recently been found in
Esmeraldas
Department,
Ecuador
, that were previously known only from the western slopes of the Western Cordillera in southern
Colombia
, e.g.
Amauta angusta
(
H. Druce, 1907
)
and
A. hodeei kruegeri
(
Niepelt, 1927
)
; this suggests that the
bogota
holotype
was probably collected somewhere in that region.
Taxonomic status:
Currently the only valid species of
Insigniocastnia
J.Y. Miller, 2007
,
I. bogota
comb. nov.
It was included by Houlbert (1918) in his new genus
Aciloa
, which included most of the species now considered to be in
Athis
Hübner
, [1819]. Miller included the taxon, although incorrectly spelled and with the wrong year of publication, as
Athis bogata
Strand,
1914
in both her 1986 dissertation and her 1995 checklist.
Lamas (1995b)
included it in
Athis
. The taxon is a senior subjective synonym of
Insigniocastnia taisae
J. Y. Miller, 2007
. We accept Miller’s assignment of the species to a new genus.
Male genitalia
: The genitalia of the
holotype
are not available to us, but see
I. taisae
.
Distribution:
Southern
Colombia
, although exactly where is unknown, and
Esmeraldas
Department,
Ecuador
, where all specimens of
Insigniocastnia taisae
have been found.
Discussion:
As far as we are aware no other specimens of
I. bogota
were known apart from the
holotype
. A recent examination of the
holotype
shows clearly that it is the same as
I. taisae
. On closer examination of the types of
C. bogota
and
I. taisae
, it can be noticed that the antennal club in the former appears pale fulvous. The palpi are also fulvous as opposed to cream in
I. taisae
.
Material examined:
1♂
Holotype
, 99,
Colombia
,
Bogota
,
Holotype
,
Niepelt
collection (
NHMW
)
.