Telegonus fulminator (Sepp, [1841]) (Hesperiidae: Eudaminae) and its Recently Designated Neotype

The genus Telegonus (Hesperiidae: Eudaminae: Eudamini) has about 26 described species (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007). Of these, the Telegonus fulgerator species group comprises about 17 species, most of them with rather similar habitus of the imagines, with, probably, a considerable number of species yet to be described (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007, Zhang et al. 2023, pers. obs.). In a 2004 seminal paper by Hebert et al., not only was the great utility of DNA technology demonstrated in distinguishing Telegonus species (at that time in the genus Astraptes), it also showed that the most differentiating morphological features were in the last instar larvae (Hebert et al. 2004). Recently, Zhang et al. (2023) have designated a neotype for Papilio fulminator Sepp, [1841] from Suriname and transferred it to the genus Telegonus. They report that no putative type specimens were found in the collections in London (NHM-UK), Berlin (MFNB), Paris (MNHP), Leiden (RMNH) or Munich (ZSMC). In addition, the present first author unsuccessfully searched the former collection of the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam (the place where Sepp lived and worked; the collection is now housed in Naturalis, Leiden) as well as the National Zoological Collection of Suriname in Paramaribo for putative type specimens of Sepp. Moreover, in the preface of the first volume of Surinaamsche Vlinders, Sepp [1829–1843] mentions drawings and notes of the rearings in Suriname, but no specimens. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the type specimen of T. fulminator is lost, as correctly stated by Zhang et al. (2023), and this holds, in all probability, for the type specimens of all the species described in the three volumes of Surinaamsche Vlinders. T. fulminator has not been recorded in Suriname since the observations in the late 18th century, which led to its description. Here, we review what is known of the species and provide some comments on the validity of the neotype. Papilio fulminator Sepp, [1841], was described on pp. 75–76 and illustrated on pl. 34 in the first volume of Sepp ([1829–1843]) (Fig. 1b). A species description is hardly given by Sepp, only the statement is provided that the hindwings are more rounded and the ventral side differs from specimens illustrated by Cramer. Jan Sepp was a publisher in Amsterdam. As he wrote in the preface of the first volume of Surinaamsche Vlinders, the rearings in Suriname had been done by H.J. Scheller, who was commissioned by J.G. Wichers (governor of Suriname from 1784 to 1790). In 1790, Wichers took Scheller’s drawings and field notes with him to Holland (Netherlands) and, eventually, publication followed in 38 installments, each with four plates. Jan Sepp died in 1853, but his son Cornelis continued the publishing firm and became a member of the NEV (Nederlandse Entomologische Vereniging) [Netherlands Entomological Society] in 1854-1855 (Anonymous 1859). Cornelis Sepp’s death in 1868 meant the end of the firm. His widow donated Scheller’s paintings and field notes to the NEV, probably in 1869 (Anonymous 1870), and they are now deposited at Naturalis, Leiden (Gernaat et al. 2022). Publication dates of the species described by Sepp have to be inferred from indirect sources, as no dates are mentioned in the installments or volumes of Surinaamsche Vlinders. In the case of P. fulminator (published in the 9th installment), Naturalis has a letter from the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands (which had a subscription to the installments), stating that the 9th installment had been delivered at the Teylers Museum on 18 December 1841. Scheller’s painting of what would later be known as Papilio fulminator is shown in Fig. 1a. The painting is signed “H.J. Scheller” (on other paintings “H.J. Scheller pinxit” [H.J. Scheller painted this]). The notes on the painting were probably made by the anonymous researchers who helped Sepp prior to publication. The process of rendering a painting into an illustration for most books in the late 18th and early 19th centuries involved transferring the figures onto a copper place, which was then engraved or etched to reflect the outlines and other details of the original drawing. This was followed by printing and hand-coloring of the resulting prints. As all this involved considerable craftmanship and experience, there are sometimes discrepancies between Sepp’s plates and Scheller’s originals. This is generally true for all such published prints, even between copies of the same illustration. In the case of Papilio fulminator, Sepp’s plate is a fairly good copy of Scheller’s painting. Differences include the greenish coloring of the wings of the imago, which is Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 77(2), 2023, 126–129