Porphyrogenes zohra
Creators: name: Austin, George T.
name: Mielke, Olaf H. H.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Hesperiidae
Porphyrogenes
Porphyrogenes zohra

description: Porphyrogenes zohra (Möschler, 1879)   
(Fig. 29, 30, 81, 82, 124, 143)  
 Telegonus zohra Möschler, 1879. Type locality: Venezuela; male [holo] type (Fig. 29, 30) in MNHU.   
 Description. Male (Fig. 29, 30, 81, 82) - mean forewing length = 24.3 mm (24.2-24.6 mm, n = 3; from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela); forewing with costal fold, apex pointed, not produced, termen and anal margin slightly convex; hindwing termen nearly straight, tornus produced to short lobe, vein Rs arising mid-base and end of discal cell and basad of CuA 2 (Fig. 124); dorsum brown, unmarked; forewing overscaled with orange-brown, heaviest basad, anal margin with sparse tuft proximad; hindwing overscaled with orange-brown posterior to vein Rs, no indication of discal macules; shining gray speculum in base of anterior discal cell, proximal 1/4 of Sc+R 1 -Rs, and proximal 1/3 of costal cell; moderate length tan recumbent tuft near base of Sc+R 1 -Rs, semierect tan tuft arising from near base of discal cell covering speculum in discal cell and, with anterior tuft, covering base of speculum in Sc+R 1 -Rs (Fig. 124); conspicuous erect orange-brown tuft along anterior edge of vein 2A, recumbent gray-tan tuft from posterior edge of 2A; fringes on both wings brown.   
 Venter orange-brown; forewing vein 2A moderately sinuate, bare and moderately swollen in central 1/3, no distinct groove (Fig. 124); shining gray-brown speculum in proximal 1/4 of CuA 2 -2A (continued to end of bared portion of vein as modified red-brown scales) and in proximal 1/2 of anal cell (continued to tornus as modified red-brown scales); hindwing with no indication of discal macules; cell 2A-3A with deep groove just caudad of vein 2A.   
Dorsal head and thorax orange-brown, palpi tawny, eyes red, antennae black on dorsum, yellow on venter and beneath apiculus, nudum red-brown, 27 (n = 1) or 29 (n = 1) segments, ventral thorax orangebrown, pectus tawny, legs orange-brown proximad, orange distad, dorsal abdomen brown, overscaled with orange-brown, ventral abdomen warm brown.  
Genitalia (Fig. 143) - tegumen narrow in lateral view, broad and nearly quadrate in dorsal view, long and thin dorso-caudal oriented process from each side of caudal end, tuft double and dense; uncus short, slightly decurved in lateral view, divided in dorsal view, arms widely spaced and short, ventral process of uncus as rounded lobe; gnathos shorter than uncus, terminal ends rounded in ventral view; combined ventral arms from tegumen and dorsal arms from saccus nearly straight; saccus narrow, long, oriented dorso-cephalad; valva with costa-ampulla triangular with narrow flap at apex, harpe very long, narrow becoming slightly broader caudad, curving upward rather abruptly to blunt (somewhat club-shaped in caudal view) and serrated caudal end oriented nearly dorsad; aedeagus much shorter than valva, broad with blunt and flaring caudal end; cornuti as double row of slightly curved, robust, and moderately long spikes.  
Female - unknown.  
 Distribution and phenology. This species has been reported from Honduras and northern South America (Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, northern Brazil [Pará]) (Möschler 1879, Draudt 1922, Williams and Bell 1940, Bell 1946, Evans 1952, de Jong 1983). Three males were examined during this study: HONDURAS: La Ceiba, 19 June 1981 (GTA #8903), NICARAGUA: Zelaya Dept., Bluefields, 9 Dec. 1975 (GTA #13918), and VENEZUELA: Barinas, Rio Caparo Res. Station, 32 km E El Canton, 3-5 Feb. 1978, seasonal forest at blacklight (J. M. Burns no. X-1673).   
 Diagnosis and discussion. Porphyrogenes zohra is most similar to P. stresa, but is overall more brightly colored, vein 2A is more sinuate and swollen, and there are differences in the genitalia as noted above under P. stresa. Draudt’s (1922) depiction indicated a specimen with a small yellow macule on the forewing. The male type in MNHU (Fig. 29, 30) is the [holo] type of Telegonus zohra.   
 Evans (1952) and subsequent students (e.g., Mielke 2004, 2005) have, without justification, considered Thymele virgatus Mabille, 1888 as the female of and synonymous with P. zohra. Thymele virgatus, another taxon (see above under P. omphale) without a clearly associated male, is here removed from that synonymy since there is yet nothing to indicate its relationship with P. zohra.
description: Published as part of Austin, George T. & Mielke, Olaf H. H., 2008, Hesperiidae of Rondônia, Brazil: Porphyrogenes Watson (Lepidoptera: Pyrginae: Eudamini), with descriptions of new species from Central and South America, pp. 1-56 in Insecta Mundi 2008 (44) on page 17, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5169696