Catalogue of the Arctianae in the Tring Museum, with notes and descriptions of new species. I and II

Abstract

By the HON.W. ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D.I HAVE arranged my Arcikinae according to the Catalogue of the Lepidoplera Pkalacnae in the British Museum, vol. iii., this being tlie most recent work on the fiimily as a whole. I have, however, included the three genera Goiiotrephcs, A/tta.ria, and -Xeozatrephes, placed by Sir George Hampson among the Si/ntomiilae, because I consider these genera, in spite of the absence of the costal vein of the hindwing, more nearly allied to the Arctianae than to the Si/nlomidae. Considering the great use and imiwrtance to lepidopterists of the British Museum Catalogue, it is to be regretted that not sufficient distinction has been empiuisised between Subspecies and Aberrations. In several instances Sir George Hampson has cdrrectly separated the subspecies, but in by far the larger number of cases he has united them indiscriminately under the term " aberration." It cannot be too often reiterated that a Subspecies is a local race or geographical representative of a given species, in which the variation from the " type " is more or less uniform and constant : on the other hand, an Aberration is a sporadic or individual variation occurring among the typical individuals, and in which, even if several specimens occur, the variation from the type is rarely if ever uniform and not persistent. A difference from the type, liowever small, if confined to one locality and to the bulk of or the whole of the individuals from that locality, is sufficient to separate this group of individnals as a subspecies ; but, be the difference ever so great, if it is pnrely individual, not confined to any one locality, and occurs casually with the typical form, it can (inly be considered an aberration, and, in my opinion, should not be named. Subspecies, on the other hand, should be named trinomially, thus : Arctia caja americana. I have, in the body of this catalogue, given the localities, in many cases, in an abbreviated form, in order to save time and space. I here enumerate the ( 3 ) Wiikenaaiu Island, British Guiana.

A Review of Tiger Moths (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini) From Flores Island, Lesser Sunda Archipelago, With Description of a New Species and New Subspecies

“…Diagnosis: The females of West Flores's subspecies differs from A. c. cardinalis (Butler, 1875) from the Philippines and A. c. celebensis (Rothschild, 1910) from Sulawesi by the lack of submarginal spots or presence of 1-2 small, elongated spots on the hindwing (vs. large black submarginal patches); from A. c. reducta (Rothschild, 1910) from the Tomea Island (Tukangbesi Archipelago) by the lack of submarginal spots or presence of 1-2 small, elongated spots on the hindwing (vs. 3 black submarginal spots); and from A. cardinalis luteomarginata (Rothschild, 1910) from Timor, East Flores and Maluku by red coloration on costa, collar and edges of tegulae (vs. yellow). The males of West Flores's subspecies differ by darker creamy or light brown ground color of the hindwing (vs. white).…”

“…The range of each subspecies of A. cardinalis is confined to a certain archipelago or island that corresponds to the allopatric speciation model (Rothschild, 1910;Dubatolov, 2004;Černý 2011). With respect to this biogeographic pattern, these isolated subspecies may actually represent several divergent species-level lineages but this hypothesis need to be checked in a future on the basis of molecular sequence data.…”

“…Despite the fact that the Wallacean Region is a famous evolutionary hotspot (Lohman et al 2011), the current knowledge of the Lepidoptera fauna of the Lesser Sunda Archipelago, including the Flores Island, is very limited (Bolotov et al, 2017). A few notes on records of several tiger moth species (Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini) from Flores are available in the body of literature (e.g., Rothschild, 1910;Roepke, 1954;Holloway, 1988;De Vos, 2002, 2015Dubatolov, 2010Dubatolov, , 2012Černý, 2011, 2014Spitsyn et al, 2016).…”

Arctiini Leach, [1815] (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae) of the Brazilian Amazon. I — Subtribe Phaegopterina Kirby, 1892

“…The number of phaegopterine species recorded for the Brazilian Amazon is almost twice that found in the Brazilian Cerrado ) and corresponds to 27.3% of Neotropical phaegopterine species (Vincent Amaxia gnosia (Schaus, 1905) AM, Atalaia do Norte {Santo Antonio do Javari} (Rothschild 1910), Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1910); RO, Porto Velho (Rothschild 1910) Amaxia kennedyi (Rothschild, 1909) AMZ MA, Açailândia* Amaxia klagesi (Rothschild, 1909) NEW AM, Manaus*; RO, Porto Velho* Amaxia laurentia (Schaus, 1905) NEW MT, Sinop* Amaxia lepida (Schaus, 1912) PA, Altamira {Monte Santo} (Teston and Delfina 2010) Amaxia manora (Druce, 1906) AM, Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1910) Amaxia ockendeni (Rothschild, 1909) AM, Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1909a (Hawes et al 2009) Amaxia pseudodyuna Rothschild, 1922 PA, [Belém] (Rothschild 1922) Amaxia pyga Schaus, 1892 AM, Rio Amazonas (Rothschild 1910); PA, Oriximiná* Amaxia reticulata (Rothschild, 1909) AM, Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1909a (Rothschild 1910); RR, Alto Alegre* Ammalo violitincta Rothschild, 1922 PA, [Belém] (Rothschild 1922) Amphelarctia priscilla (Schaus, 1911) AM, Codajás (Watson 1975), Fonte Boa (Watson 1975) Aphyle affinis Rothschild, 1909 AM, Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1909a), Tefé (Rothschild 1910) Aphyle cuneata Hampson, 1905 AM, Benjamin Constant*, Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1910 (Rothschild 1910), Fonte Boa (Rothschild 1910), São Paulo de Olivença (Hampson 1901) Diaphanophora albiscripta (Schaus, 1905) AM, Manaus*; PA, Almeirim {Jari} (Hawes et al 2009), [Belém] (Rothschild 1922) Disconeura inexpectata (Rothschild, 1910) ...…”

First record of Toulgoetarctia nigripuncta (Joicey & Talbot, 1918) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) from Brazil

“…The genus Toulgoetarctia was described by Coenen and Gibeaux in 2014 and its distribution is exclusively Neotropical; currently there are 6 described species , and among these, 2 have known distribution in Brazil: Toulgoetarctia haematora Coenen & Gibeaux, 2014 (Amazonas) and T. sanguinea (Hampson, 1905) (Pará) (Rothschild 1910, Rothschild 1922, Teston and Ferro 2016a.…”