Catasticta troezene

Bollino, Maurizio & Costa, Mauro, 2007, An illustrated annotated check-list of the species of Catasticta (s. l.) Butler (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) of Venezuela, Zootaxa 1469, pp. 1-42 : 8-9

8 Catasticta troezene (C. & R. Felder, 1865) (TL: Colombia, Bogotá)

(fig. 7: a-d; fig. 19)

Catasticta troezene was described from male and females, but only two females were found in the type series at the BMNH. Lamas (1993) selected one of these as a lectotype, but erroneously wrote that it was a male ( Abadjiev 2006). Felder (1865), in the same paper, described Euterpe zancle from two or more females, but the specimen labelled as " type " appears to be a male. Both taxa were described from " Nova Granada: Bogotá (Lindig)". Examination of males and females recently collected along the eastern side of the Colombian Cordillera Oriental confirms that Euterpe zancle C. & R. Felder 1865 is a synonym of Euterpe troezene C. & R. Felder 1865, as previously stated by various authors ( Reissinger, 1972; Eitschberger & Racheli, 1998; Lamas, 2004). Two additional taxa, i.e. latiplaga Röber 1924 (TL: Colombia, E-Cordilliere, Pacho) and lactea Avinoff 1926 (TL: Colombia, Choachi), are also synonyms of Catasticta troezene troezene C. & R. Felder 1865. The lectotype of Catasticta troezene troezenides Röber, 1908 (TL: Colombia) selected by Lamas (1993) corresponds to Colombian populations of Catasticta troezene distributed along Magdalena Valley on both the western side of the Cordillera Oriental and the eastern side of the Cordillera Central ( Bollino & Rodríguez, 2004). It does not occur in Venezuela.

Catasticta gelba Brown & Gabriel, 1939 has been considered to be the “Venezuelan subspecies” of Catasticta troezene ( Eitschberger & Racheli, 1998; Lamas, 2004). Extensive material recently collected in Táchira reveals that C. gelba is sympatric and synchronic with a new subspecies of C. troezene , which we describe.