Castnia odila, (Houlbert, 1917)

Lamas, Gerardo, 2017, A review of the genus Haemonides Hübner, [1819] (Lepidoptera: Castniidae), Zootaxa 4320 (2), pp. 245-271 : 264

odila ( Houlbert, 1917)

Castnia odila Houlbert, 1917 : Études de Lépidoptérologie comparée 13: 76–77. (figs. 5, 27–28).

Type material. Described from a single male collected by Marc Hüe de Mathan between May and July 1884 . This specimen is the holotype by monotypy, at the time of description it was in the collection of Charles Oberthür (1845–1924), it is now in BMNH. It was afterwards illustrated by Houlbert (1918: pl. 456, fig. 3829).

Type locality. “ Amazones, Pérou, Cavallo-Cocho ”. Cavallo-Cocho is actually the town known as Caballo Cocha or more properly Caballococha (3°54'S, 70°31'W) . It is located on the right bank of the river Amazon in Loreto department, eastern Peru .

Taxonomic status. A junior subjective synonym of H. cronis ( Cramer, 1775) . This taxon was originally described as a species and treated as such by Miller (1995) but subsequently revised to a subspecies of cronis by Lamas (1995). It is considered here to be merely a variant individual of H. cronis , and therefore a junior subjective synonym of that taxon.

Distribution. Apart from the holotype the only similar specimen we know of is a male in RW recently acquired from Picuroyacu (3°37'S, 73°16'W), Loreto, Peru.

Discussion. The holotype appeared to be unique until a specimen was recently acquired by RW (see above). Haemonides c. cronis is known from Iquitos, Loreto, Peru (3°45'S, 73°15'W), which is only 300km west of the type locality of Castnia odila . There is also a small series of H. cronis from Iquitos in RW, however, the male phenotype is identical to that of typical cronis and bears no resemblance to the type of odila .

In the past there has been some confusion over the name with most people (particularly dealers) using the name to refer to all Peruvian H. cronis .

Material examined. Both of the above mentioned specimens were examined for this study.