Zygaena (Zygaena) rhadamanthus rhadamanthus (Esper, [1789])

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

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Zygaenidae

Zygaena (Zygaena) rhadamanthus rhadamanthus (Esper, [1789])

Sphinx rhadamanthus Esper, [1789], Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen 2 (Supplement): pl. 40, figs 1, 2; 1794, ibidem 2: 13. Type-locality. France: Gard (Languedoc), Nîmes.

Zygaena rhadamanthus pyrenaea Verity, 1920, The Entomologist’s Record and Journal of Variation 32: 161 ( Zygaena ). Type-locality. France: Pyrénées-Orientales, between Prades and Mont Canigou, La Trancada d’Ambouilla.

Zygaena rhadamanthus boixolsis Aistleitner, 1990, Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo (N.F.) 11: 79. Type-locality. Spain: Lérida, Collado de Boixols, 1,300-1,400 m. [Paratypes 4 ♂, 4; Topotypes 4 ♂, 1 ♀ examined.] Syn. n.

Distribution and taxonomic notes.

Based on a description by Oberthür (1910: 591), Verity provided the name pyrenaea for the population of Zygaena rhadamanthus occurring at La Trancada d’Ambouilla ( Pyrénées-Orientales, between Prades and Mont Canigou). Leraut (2012: 98) considered this taxon to be a 'simple synonym’ of the nominotypical Zygaena rhadamanthus rhadamanthus , a placement with which we agree even though Hofmann and Tremewan (1996: 131) had considered it to be a valid subspecies with which the taxon Zygaena rhadamanthus boixolsis Aistleitner, 1990, had been placed as a synonym. The latter is now automatically transferred as a synonym of the nominotypical subspecies. Specimens from La Trancada d’Ambouilla lack the white scaling (griseoid) on the ground colour of the forewings; moreover, a red abdominal cingulum is absent, as found in the nominotypical subspecies.