Castnia subcoerulea, (Rothschild, 1919)

González, Jorge M., Thöny, Hubert & Worthy, Robert, 2024, A review of the genus Mirocastnia J. Y. Miller, 1980 (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) with records of recently collected specimens, Zootaxa 5418 (3), pp. 240-254 : 252

subcoerulea ( Rothschild, 1919)

“ Castnia (Schaefferia) subcoerulea , sp. nov. ” Rothschild, 1919: Novitates zoologicae 26 (1): 18. ( Figs. 2G, H ).

Type material: Described from a single female which is the holotype by monotypy ( Figs. 2G, H ). This holotype was in the collection of Lionel Walter Rothschild (1868–1937), it is now in NHMUK.

Type locality: Rothschild (1919) only gave the type locality as Ecuador, and this is all that is mentioned on the label data of the specimen. This cannot now be further restricted.

Taxonomic status: A junior subjective synonym of M. pyrrhopygoides ( Houlbert, 1917) . Originally described as a species in the genus Castnia (Schaefferia) , it was synonymised with M. pyrrhopygoides by Miller (1980).

Male genitalia: Not relevant.

Distribution: Not relevant.

Discussion: Houlbert (1917) described M. pyrrhopygoides from three males; Rothschild’s subcoerulea was the first description of the female, which is quite different from the male and was not at the time recognised as being the same species; this problem was exacerbated by the fact that the male and female were placed in different genera by their authors. Miller (1980) was the first to recognise their conspecificity.

Material examined: For this study we have examined the holotype. ♀ HT subcoerulea 1919 R[othschild], Ecuad[or], 339., Joicey Bequest. Brit. Mus., NHMUK010305386 , vial NHMUK010402734 .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Dorsal and ventral view of selected Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides pyrrhopygoides specimens. A, B: ♁ Valle del Cauca, Colombia (LC) (not to scale); C, D: ♀ Risaralda, Colombia (JS); E: ♁ Lectotype, Zaruma, Ecuador (NHMUK); F: ♁ Paralectotype, Zaruma, Ecuador (NHMUK); G, H: ♀ Holotype Castnia (Schaefferia) subcoerulea, Ecuador (NHMUK); I, J: ♁ Esmeraldas, Ecuador (RW); K, L: ♀ Otongachi, Ecuador (HT). Scale: 10 mm.