Castniomera atymnius newmanni ( Houlbert 1917 )

González, Jorge M. & Cock, Matthew J. W., 2004, A synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Trinidad and Tobago, Zootaxa 762, pp. 1-19 : 8

Castniomera atymnius newmanni ( Houlbert 1917) (Fig. 8)

This species commonly attacks bananas ( Musaceae ). The subspecies was described from eastern Panama, but commonly occurs in northern Colombia and northern Venezuela. We know of only two Trinidad specimens. One was curated amongst Trinidad specimens of Telchin licus , with which this species is easily confused. The easiest way to separate the two species is that C. atymnius lacks the reddish­orange spot band in the lateral margin of the hindwing, which is found in T. licus . It is possible that C. atymnius has been overlooked and may be more common than these two records indicate. However, it has been suggested that C. atymnius and T. licus may be conspecific ( Lamas 1995, pers. comm.), but a more detailed study would be necessary to clarify this. Castniomera atymnius and T. licus appear to be sympatric in parts of Central America, the Guianas, and eastern Brazil, and it may be that T. licus is locally polymorphic, one of its morphs (outside Amazonia) being atymnius (G. Lamas, pers. comm.). We do not necessarily agree with Lamas and have also discussed the issue with Dr. J. Y. Miller and believe that both are valid species. Interestingly, the type of atymnius f. feminis Strand, from Brazil, Bahia (G. Lamas, pers. comm.) as well as the BMNH specimen we studied (Fig. 8) shows traces of the HW reddish submarginal spots above.

Material Examined: CARONI: 1Ψ, Caparo, Jul (19)04, F. Birch ( BMNH); ST. ANDREW: 1ɗ, Sans Souci estate, 20 m, 10°34’N, 61°08’W, 28 Dec 1993, W.M. Neukirchen ( UMSM). [The last specimen was reported to us by G. Lamas (pers. comm.); we have not examined it.]