Prometheus Hübner, [1824]

García-Díaz, José De Jesús, Espinoza-Sanabria, Bernardo A., Worthy, Robert, González, Jorge M., Janzen, Daniel H. & Hallwachs, Winnie, 2024, Synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Costa Rica, Zootaxa 5481 (2), pp. 151-202 : 177

VII. Prometheus Hübner, [1824]

A genus originally containing a single species endemic to southeastern Brazil and northeast Argentina, Prometheus cochrus (Fabricius, 1787) ( Penco 2011; Maes & González 2022). However, Gazera Herrich-Schäffer, [1853] , Duboisvalia Oiticica, 1955 , Tosxampila Oiticica 1955 , and Zegara Oiticica, 1955 , were later synonymized by Moraes & Duarte (2014), increasing the number of species in Prometheus to 10. Most species currently incorporated into this genus belong to various mimetic rings ( Miller 1986; Maes & González 2022), among which they mainly mimic some species of Papilionidae and Nymphalidae ( Heliconiini , Ithomiini ) ( Miller 1986; Vinciguerra 2008; González et al. 2010, 2017; Moraes & Duarte 2014; Parrales-Ramírez & Vargas-Fonseca 2017; Van den Berghe et al. 2020). All species are of medium to large size with a high phenotypic variation. Miller (1995) considered four valid taxa of this complex with a distribution in Central America, but Lamas (1995) synonymized most of them and accepted what would become Prometheus zagraea (after Moraes & Duarte (2014)) as a single species with two subspecies, present in Central America and Colombia, respectively. Interestingly, the distribution of P. cochrus differs to a great extent from most species currently included in the genus, which are distributed mainly in Central America and the Andean region ( Miller 1986). Further review of this genus as currently treated by Moraes & Duarte (2014) is certainly needed. Ongoing research (Worthy & González, in prep.) suggests that P. z. zagraea and P. z. salvina may be separate species.