A synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Paraguay

Abstract

A list with comments on status, natural history, biology, hosts and distribution are presented for all species of Castniidae known from Paraguay. All the presented information has been summarized based on literature, museum specimens, information gathered from researchers/collectors and personal observations. New synonyms are proposed: Imara satrapes catharina (Preiss) [= Imara satrapes (Kollar)] and Castnia juturna paraguayensis Strand (= Castnia invaria penelope Schaufuss), and synonymic lists are given in each case. Twelve species are recorded from Paraguay, four of them are relatively common and have been previously reported from the country [Synpalamides phalaris (Fabricius), Synpalamides rubrophalaris (Houlbert), Castnia invaria penelope Schaufuss, Gazera heliconioides micha (H. Druce)]. The other eight species are much less common in collections [Imara satrapes, Castnia juturna Hopffer, Telchin licus laura (H. Druce), Ceretes marcelserres (Godart), Riechia acraeoides (Guérin-Méneville), Prometheus cochrus (Fabricius), Frostetola gramivora (Schaus), Paysandisia archon (Burmeister)]. Telchin licus laura (H. Druce) and Frostetola gramivora (Schaus) are reported from this country for the first time. Four species not known from Paraguay, but suitable to be found within, are also mentioned [Yagra fonscolombe (Godart), Castnia lecerfi Dalla Torre, Geyeria uruguayana (Burmeister), Ceretes thais (Drury)].

Catalog of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Buenos Aires: types’ description and general and historical notes.

“…Existe una forma "blanca" y una "roja" fenotípicamente muy distintas, ambas representadas en la colección del MACN. Nota: Esta especie está distribuida en el sudeste de Brasil, este de Paraguay y noreste de Argentina (Ríos & González, 2011). El ejemplar asignado a Burmeister (ver Material examinado) podría proceder del noreste argentino.…”

“…El ejemplar asignado a Burmeister (ver Material examinado) podría proceder del noreste argentino. Las xualmente, es conocida de Bolivia, sudeste de Brasil, centro-este de Paraguay y norte de Argentina, y es rara en colecciones (Penco, 2011;Ríos & González, 2011;Ríos Díaz et al, 2015). Desafortunadamente, ninguno de los ejemplares del MACN fue recolectado en Argentina, aunque es conocido de la provincia de Misiones (Penco, 2011;Ríos et al, 2015).…”

“…Este ejemplar es muy similar al tipo de P. c. cononioides (Strand, 1913) y sinonimizado bajo cononia por Lamas (1995). Nota: La subespecie P. h. micha es común en Paraguay, especialmente en la región oriental y está aparentemente asociada con ciertas bromeliáceas terrestres (Ríos & González, 2011). La subespecie es conocida también de Bolivia y el Sudeste de Brasil (Rothschild, 1919;Miller, 1986;Ríos & González, 2011).…”

Morphological, chemical and electrophysiological investigations of Telchin licus (Lepidoptera: Castniidae)

“…The giant sugarcane borer Telchin licus (Drury, 1773) (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) is distributed throughout Central and South America [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Its larvae feed on the stems and rhizomes of sugarcane, pineapple and banana [7,8], causing severe damage in sugarcane crops [6,9].…”

Courtship behavior of the castniid palm borer, Paysandisia archon: potential roles of male scents and visual cues in a day-flying moth

“…The family Castniidae is a small moth family found in the neotropics and Australia, with a few species in southeast Asia. The family belongs to the Sesioidea and includes large diurnal moths familiarly called “butterfly moths” ( Kristensen et al 2007 ; Rios and Gonzales 2011 ). The reproductive behavior of castniids remains largely unknown.…”