Catocala irene Behr, 1870

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 : 57

Catocala irene Behr

Fig. 21 (neotype)

Catocala irene Behr, 1870: 24

Catocala irene ; Barnes and McDunnough 1918: 22

Catocala irene ; McDunnough 1938: 116

Catocala irene ; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 128

Type material. Catocala irene : the original description states “Ft. Tejon, one specimen.” Smith (1893: 343) indicated the irene type was in Henry Edwards’ collection, and Barnes and McDunnough stated (1918: 22): “According to Hy. Edwards, who had opportunities of examining the type specimen (since destroyed)…; a specimen of this form, marked ‘true to type’ exists in the Hy. Edwards’ Collection…” Reiff (1920: 64) added: “Without making any comments I may mention that I have from the old Worthington collection a specimen without locality label and marked ‘Irene type’ in apparently Strecker’s handwriting.” Henry Edwards’ specimen is at the AMNH, and Reiff’s specimen is at the MCZ. We have not been able to locate another specimen that is unquestionably the C. irene holotype. Reiff’s MCZ specimen could be the holotype, since what we consider to be the holotype of C. zoe Behr, 1870 is in the Strecker collection at the FMNH, and it seems likely that Behr’s Catocala types resided at some juncture with Strecker (see Gall and Hawks 1990). However, since we cannot prove the MCZ specimen is the holotype, and the name refers to a member of the taxonomically diffi cult and variable western Nearctic species, we give precedence to the AMNH specimen compared to the type, and designate it as neotype to clarify application of the name irene . Th e neotype bears the labels “Mendocino / California.”, “3477”, “No. 11896 / Collection / Hy. Edwards.”, “True to type. / irene / Behr.” Type Locality: hereby amended to Mendocino, California, [ USA] on the basis of the neotype locality label.