A new genus of Castniinae (Lepidoptera) with comments on comparative morphology and bionomics of its assigned species

On-Demand

Presenting Author(s)

Jacqueline Y. Miller

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity
Gainesville, Florida

Co-Author(s)

JG

Jorge Gonzalez

Austin Public Schools
Austin, Texas
BL

Bernardo Lopez

None
Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico
IZ

Ignacio Zaragozo

none
Cuernavava, Morelos, Mexico

There are 14 species of Castniinae known from Mexico of which about ten appear to be endemic. Among the latter, we find Synpalamides chelone (Hopffer, 1856), Synpalamides escalantei (J.Y. Miller, 1976) and Castnia estherae J.Y. Miller, 1976. As far as we can tell, no additional specimens of this latter species have been observed until recently, and most of these are reported herein. A complete description of the male of S. estherae is provided along with a discussion of the comparative morphology of the closely related species of S. chelone and S. escalantei, and insight into their life histories, behavior, and bionomics are presented Additional review of these species along with the other Synpalamides restricted to South America warranted the description of a new genus, Escalantiana J.Y. Miller gen. nov., to which some the of above species are assigned.