Prometheus zagraea subsp. zagraea
Creators: name: García-Díaz, José De Jesús
name: Espinoza-Sanabria, Bernardo A.
name: Worthy, Robert
name: González, Jorge M.
name: Janzen, Daniel H.
name: Hallwachs, Winnie
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Castniidae
Prometheus
Prometheus zagraea
Prometheus zagraea zagraea (r. felder, 1874)

description: 15. Prometheus zagraea zagraea (R. Felder, 1874)
(Figs. 8A, 8B, 10C, 12F) (BIN: BOLD:AAE6534)
Castnia zagraea Felder, 1874; R. Felder, 1874. Reise Fregatte Novara, Bd 2 (Abth. 2) (4), p. 3, pl. 79, fig. 2.
Gazera columbina Boisduval, [1875]; Boisduval, [1875]. Spec. Gén. des Lép. Hét. Tome 1: Sphin., Sesi., Cast., p. 546. Castnia cycna Westwood, 1877; Westwood, 1877. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lon., Zoo. 2 (1), p. 191, pl. 32, fig. 2.
Castnia cycna var. minor; Westwood, 1877. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lon., Zoo. 2 (1), p. 191.
Doubldaya [sic] zagraeus; Buchecker, [1899], Syst. Ent., Sist. Insect. Class., Gen., Spec.: Pars 6, pl. 23, fig. 28.
Gazera zagraeoides; Houlbert, 1918. Étud. Lép. Comp. 15, pp. 66, 630, 703, fig. 225, pl. CDLXI, fig. 3844.
Zegara cycna; Miller, 1995, in Heppner. Castnioidea: Castniidae: Castniinae, Checklist part 2, Atlas Neo. Lep., p. 137. Zegara zagraea zagraea; Lamas, 1995. Revta. Per. Ent. 37, p. 85.
Prometheus zagraea; Moraes & Duarte, 2014. Zoo. Jour. Linn. Soc. 170 (2), p. 32.
General comments. According to Lamas (1995), Prometheus (Zegara) zagraea zagraea (R. Felder, 1874) was described from Panama. This species is a member of a mimetic ring that includes various species of Heliconiinae and Danainae (Nymphalidae) that exhibit a “tiger pattern” (Miller 1986; González et al. 2010). The wing shape in both sexes is similar to that of Lycorea halia (Hübner, 1816). Males are smaller than females, wings are not as wide, and overall coloration is darker than females.
Prometheus zagraea is polymorphic, which favored the description of various taxa, resulting in records from Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama under different species or subspecies names (i.e. carilla, columbina, panamensis, salvina, zagraea). Consequently, doubts about the validity of some of those names were raised, as well as the taxonomic status of the different populations found between Nicaragua and Colombia, and their respective distribution. A thorough review of this complex of species today dumped in the genus Prometheus (which we consider incorrect) is needed to clarify their taxonomic status and distribution limits.
Ecology and behavior. Adults are diurnal and fly on sunny days. Miller (1986) pointed out that females of this species have been sighted in Costa Rica laying eggs on the terrestrial bromeliad Aechmea magdalenae (André)André ex Baker, 1889 (Bromeliaceae) (Vinciguerra 2008; González et al. 2010, 2017; Van den Berghe et al. 2020).
Distribution and biogeography. According to the bibliography and the specimens studied for the present study, P. z. zagraea is known from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia (Miller 1986, 1995; Lamas 1995; Vinciguerra 2008; González et al. 2010, 2017). In Costa Rica, this subspecies has been recorded in the following cantons: Cartago: Turrialba; Guanacaste: La Cruz; Puntarenas: Golfito, Osa; San José: Mora. Based on the biogeographic provinces of the Neotropical region proposed by Morrone et al. (2022), in Costa Rica P. z. zagraea has been recorded in localities that belong to the Guatuso-Talamanca and Puntarenas-Chiriquí provinces of the Pacific dominion, and the Pacific Lowlands province of the Mesoamerican dominion, all in the Brazilian subregion.
description: Published as part of García-Díaz, José De Jesús, Espinoza-Sanabria, Bernardo A., Worthy, Robert, González, Jorge M., Janzen, Daniel H. & Hallwachs, Winnie, 2024, Synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Costa Rica, pp. 151-202 in Zootaxa 5481 (2) on page 178, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5481.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/12749637