Zygaena (Zygaena) rhadamanthus aurargentea Mazel, 1979

Efetov, Konstantin A., Hofmann, Axel, Tarmann, Gerhard M. & Tremewan, Walter Gerald, 2014, Taxonomic comments on the treatment of the Zygaenidae (Lepidoptera) in volume 3 of Moths of Europe, Zygaenids, Pyralids 1 and Brachodids (2012), Nota Lepidopterologica 37 (2), pp. 123-133 : 127

Zygaena (Zygaena) rhadamanthus aurargentea Mazel, 1979 stat. rev.

Zygaena rhadamanthus aurargentea Mazel, 1979, Entomops, Nice 6: 267, figs 1, 2 ( Zygaena ). Type-locality. France: Pyrénées-Orientales, Coustouges.

Distribution and taxonomic notes.

Described from Coustouges ( Pyrénées-Orientales, France), Zygaena rhadamanthus aurargentea is also found in Spain (Barcelona and Gerona, excluding coastal regions). It is distinguished from Zygaena rhadamanthus rhadamanthus by the extreme griseoid phenotype, i.e. with pronounced white scaling on the ground colour of the forewings, especially in the females, which is reminiscent of Zygaena rhadamanthus grisea from south-eastern and southern-central France (see above), and by the presence of a strong abdominal cingulum that is also present ventrally. Leraut (2012: 98) placed Zygaena rhadamanthus aurargentea as a synonym of Zygaena rhadamanthus cleui , which he reinstated as a valid subspecies, but we see no justification for this (see also above). The former is here reinstated (stat. rev.) as a valid subspecies, based on its extreme phenotype, which is so strongly different from that of the nominotypical taxon Zygaena rhadamanthus rhadamanthus ( Hofmann and Tremewan 1996: 131).