Cautethia exuma McCabe. A 1984
Creators: name: Miller, Jacqueline Y.
name: Matthews, Deborah L.
name: Gott, Riley J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Sphingidae
Cautethia
Cautethia exuma

description: Cautethia exuma McCabe, 1984   
Fig. 14–17, 26, 31, 42, 43, 60, 69, 72  
 Diagnosis. Males and females not distinctly dimorphic as in other species of the genus. Distinguished from C. grotei and the three new species by characters of the thorax, forewings, antennae, and genitalia. Thorax even mottled gray without traces of transverse fuscous band along anterior margin or fuscous marks on tegulae as in C. grotei and the new species. Forewing markings obscured compared to C. grotei and the others as follows. Basal area pale gray with white scale patches at base, antemedial lines indistinct, indicated by two fuscous spots present along costa, a third spot at costa within basal area. Subbasal area and medial area similar mottled smoke gray, veins not distinctly traced with darker scales, medial line obscure. Discal spot a small poorly defined patch of white scales bordered distally by diffuse patch of fuscous scales. Postmedial line zigzagged but more diffuse than in the other species. Postmedial area smoke gray. Submarginal area smoky gray bordered by narrow white band. Terminal area drab admixed with white scales. Tornal dash poorly defined, mottled smoky gray basally outlined by diffuse fuscous postmedial line. Antenna dorsum drab to gray scaled, without cream stripe along venter. Male genitalia similar to C. grotei but with gnathos short, stout, and only slightly curved, ventral aspect of apex convex, not distinctly bifid as in C. grotei. Valvae with sacculus short, tapered, simple, terminus somewhat sclerotized but not forming a distinct process as in C. simoni and C. gossi. Phallus distinguished from C. grotei and C. geraceorum in having the terminal margin sclerotized on the dorsal left side forming a minute pointed extension, by relative lengths of the vesica, and from C. simoni and C. gossi by the absence of lateral diverticuli. Female genitalia distinguished from other Bahamas species by having the posterior margin of the lamina postvaginalis medially notched. McCabe (1984) differentiated C. exuma from C. grotei by the relative size of the appendix bursae, however after examining more material this character was found variable and may be either subequal to the corpus bursae or much larger as in C. grotei.   
 Specimens examined. BAHAMAS: Eleuthera Island: Governor’s Harbour, s.l., 28.ix.2000, L. D. Miller & MJS, Allyn Museum Acc. 2000-11 (1 ♂) MGCL 231519; Long Island: blue hole E of Anderson, 23.533233°, −75.237334°, 31.v.2014, JYM, GJG, MJS, DLM, MGCL Acc. 2014-14 (1 ♂, prep. DM 2139), MGCL 239531 (LEP-22437); North Andros: 1 mi. E of Andros Town Int. airport nr. AUTEC Naval Base, 24.696535°, −77.772421°, 14.vi.2012, MJS, GJG, RMR, Michael Simon (1 ♂) MGCL 231516; Captain Bill’s Blue Hole, 24.742046°, −77.862031°, 29.x.2011, JYM, MJS, GJG, DLM, MGCL Acc. 2011-32 (1 ♂) MGCL 231517 (1 ♀) 231515; Stafford Creek, Love at First Sight (motel), 18m, 24.901449°, −77.936089°, 28.x.2011, JYM, MJS, GJG, DLM, MGCL Acc. 2011-32 (1 ♂) MGCL 231518; South Andros Island: Black Point, Steven’s Rd., 23.997568°, −77.560616°, 27.iii.2014, JYM, MJS, RMR, DLM, MGCL Acc. 2014-9 (1 ♂) MGCL 233420, (1 ♂, prep. DM 2233) MGCL 233423, (5 ♀, prep. DM 2141) MGCL 233417, 233418 (LEP-65159), 233419, 233422, 233424; farm road north of The Bluff, 24.130088°, −77.590680°, 30.iii.2014, JYM, MJS, RMR, DLM, MGCL Acc. 2014-9 (♂) MGCL 233515.   
 Life history. McCabe (1984) included a description and illustration of the larva with the original description of this species based on one larva which pupated but did not properly eclose. This larva was on black torch, Erithalis fruticosa (Linnaeus) (Rubiaceae). This foodplant occurs throughout the archipelago (Correll and Correll 1982).   
 Distribution. Cautethia exuma was previously only known from Great Exuma Island. Its distribution now also includes Eleuthera, Long, North Andros, and South Andros Islands.
description: Published as part of Miller, Jacqueline Y., Matthews, Deborah L. & Gott, Riley J., 2022, Three new species of Cautethia Grote (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) from the Lucayan Archipelago and keys to West Indies species, pp. 1-28 in Insecta Mundi 2022 (937) on pages 4-6, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7167978