Catocala praeclara ssp. charlottae Brou, 1988

Gall, Lawrence & Hawks, David, 2010, Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) IV. Nomenclatorial stabilization of the Nearctic fauna, with a revised synonymic check list, ZooKeys 39 (39), pp. 37-83 : 46

Catocala praeclara ssp. charlottae Brou , stat. n.

Catocala charlottae Brou, 1988: 116

Type material. Catocala charlottae : holotype ♁ [ USNM, examined]. Th e original description inexplicably compared C. charlottae only to the sympatric C. alabamae Grote, 1875 , and not to the more similar and widespread C. praeclara Grote & Robinson, 1866 . Specimens of C. charlottae have been reported from a scattering of counties abutting or near the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida; although several hundred specimens have been collected from the type locality (Abita Springs) only a few dozen specimens exist from all other localities combined. Th e type locality of C. charlottae is also the most southwesterly population known for praeclara , and appears to be somewhat isolated geographically from other Gulf Coast populations, although we suspect this may be an artifact of limited sampling. We have examined a series of over one hundred topotypes of C. charlottae , and although these are fairly homogeneous (forewings largely lacking both the lustrous blue-green scaling and prominent basal dash, and with an overshading of brown), about five percent of the topotypes are like C. praeclara from other localities in North America. Baggett (1989) reported that “ charlottae and a praeclara -like morph were reared from the same batch of eggs,” and J. Slotten (in litt.) has reared specimens both with and without the basal dash from the same female. Th e larva of C. charlottae is similar to nominate C. praeclara , and unlike the larva of C. alabamae . Given these rearing results, and the broad overlap in morphological variation of adult C. charlottae and C. praeclara , we consider C. charlottae to be best treated as a subspecies of C. praeclara Grote & Robinson, 1866 . Additional collecting and ex ovis rearing are desirable from the southern United States, notably in the apparent sampling gap in Mississippi and Alabama. See the account for C. manitoba Beutenmüller, 1908 below for further discussion of geographic variability in C. praeclara . Type Locality: 4.2 mi. NE Abita Springs, S[ain]t Tammany Parish, Louisiana, [ USA].