Clito littera Mabille 1877
Creators: name: Grishin, Nick V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Hesperiidae
Clito
Clito littera

description: Clito littera (Mabille, 1877), lectotype designation
(Figs. 9–10, 26 a, g, 27 part, 28 part)
Telemiades littera has been described by Mabille (1877) from the unstated number of specimens from "Apurimacensi valle et Peruvia " in the Mabille collection, of which one possible syntype is located in the BMNH collection. A search in ZMHB, where a significant fraction of Mabille types resides, did not reveal specimens of this species. This sole syntype in BMNH agrees with the original description. According to the label, it comes from the Mabille collection and is curated as a type of " littera " (Figs. 9–10). Handwriting on the label written in red ink and on two green labels matches that of Mabille. One of the green labels is a locality label. Contrary to the text in the description, it says " Brasil ". Several possibilities may explain this discrepancy. First this specimen is not a syntype. Second the syntype is mislabeled and the Mabille description is accurate about the location. Third, the label on the syntype is accurate and the Mabille description is in error. It is mostly likely that the Mabille description is in error and this specimen is a syntype originating from Brazil. The locality from the description can be translated as "Apurimac valley and Peru ". The usage of "and" may indicate that there could have been at least two specimens. However, the Apurimac river is in Peru. Moreover, in a later publication (Mabille & Boullet 1912: 121) only one specimen from "Am. Mérid." (i.e., South America) is mentioned, in the Mabille collection. While it is possible that the original description (Mabille 1877) was written off specimens different from this one, C. littera is very rare in collections and this sole specimen agrees very well with the detailed original description. It is possible that "et" in the original locality was meant to indicate a phrase "that is" rather than a conjunction "and", and this specimen was the only one to base the description upon, or the locality statement is simply in error. Comparative analysis of the three Mabille labels suggests (John V. Calhoun, pers. comm.) that the label in red ink might have been the first one, and the green labels were added later. The red ink label is very similar to the other name labels used by Mabille. The name " Littera " on the green label is overwritten with the letters " Vu " (French for "seen"? beginning of a different name?). The style of " V " matches well unique Mabille " V " on other labels. The " Brasil " locality label is written on the same green paper as the identification label and was probably added at the same time. Either Mabille forgot the locality given in the description, or corrected that locality.
In addition to C. littera, Mabille described four other species in the same work (Mabille 1877): Telemiades lurideolus, currently treated as a subjective synonym of Telemiades avitus (Stoll); Pachyneuria inops; Zera hyacinthinus and Camptopleura theramenes. Possible syntypes for all these taxa are extant in several collections, but locality labels for neither of them agree fully with their descriptions. While no locality is given in the description for P. i n op s, P. hyacinthinus and C. theramenes, labels on likely syntypes state: " Brésil " (and " Perou " on a possible syntype from IRSN), "Chiriquí" (on a syntype in ZMHB, but the BMNH syntype has no locality label) and "Bogota, Colombia ", respectively. For T. lurideolus, the description states " Brasilia ", but the specimen label gives " Colombia ". Most of these localities from the labels have been used as deduced type localities for these taxa (Mielke 2004, 2005). Interestingly, the sequence in which these taxa were described was lurideolus, littera, inops, etc. Localities on their labels are: Colombia, Brazil, Peru or Brazil, but localities in the description are: Brazil, Peru, no locality given. It is not inconceivable that a shift by one in the localities and taxa has occurred in the descriptions. If this shift is corrected, locality for C. littera becomes Brazil, and P. inops, for which two possible syntypes (in IRSN and BMNH) are extant, will get the current C. littera description locality "Apurimacensi valle et Peruvia ". Notably, specimens matching C. littera description are not known from Peru, but have been collected in Brazil: Rio de Janeiro (e.g., Gávea, Petrópolis) [OM-DZUP, MGCL].
One additional curiosity is that Draudt (1922) attempted to illustrate dorsal and ventral aspects of C. littera (Draudt 1922: pl. 169a). Interestingly, these illustrations not only disagree with the characters from the C. littera original description, but also do not agree with the text about C. littera that they were supposed to illustrate in the publication itself (Draudt 1922: p. 869). Evans (1953: p. 153) noticed a problem and corrected the Draudt identification of illustrations to Telemiades penidas (Hewitson, 1867), which is likely to be correct. Evans himself illustrated genitalia of C. littera with a sketch (1953: Plate 44: E.52. 1). These sketches, showing ventral and lateral views of the side of uncus, gnathos, tegumen and penis and left valva in medial view were drawn by Evans from crude preparation of genitalia that he glued to carton cards. However, genitalia of C. littera syntype were intact on the specimen, only the scales around genitalia were brushed off to reveal the distal ends of the valvae and uncus (Figs. 26 a, g). Apparently, Evans's sketch that shows the base of internal surface of a valva could not have been drawn from this specimen. No other nominal C. littera specimens were mentioned by Evans (1953): "Only the type " specimen was in the collection. On the other hand, genitalia of C. littera anda Evans, 1953 [holo] type have been prepared (Fig. 11-12, valva on Fig. 26 m, unfortunately both valvae now damaged). Evans's sketch must refer to C. littera anda holotype, rather than to nominal C. littera, because: (1) Evans mentions no C. littera nebulosa (Draudt, 1924) specimens, (2) the C. littera anda type series consists of two specimens and (3) anda paratype has intact abdomen.
Therefore, neither facies, nor genitalia of nominal C. littera have been illustrated in publications. However, in the BMNH collection drawer, next to the C. littera possible syntype, there is an excellent drawing of both wing surfaces (Fig. 21), mostly likely of this specimen. John V. Calhoun (pers. comm.) suggested that this unpublished drawing might be by Jules Culot (1861–1933), who illustrated many species in "Etudes de lépidoptérologie comparée" by Charles Oberthür. The Oberthürs frequently pinning often uncolored cut-outs of Culot’s published figures with the associated specimens in their collection. It is possible that Charles Oberthür thought about publishing a C. littera figure, but never got beyond this original drawing before his death in 1924, only one year after his brother, René, received Mabille’s collection. The drawing might have been pinned near the specimen, where it remained until René gave this part of the collection to BMNH in 1927. The inked name below the drawing does not seem to match the handwriting of Charles Oberthür, but it could have been written by René, Culot, or someone else at a later date (John V. Calhoun, pers. comm.).
While we cannot completely exclude the possibility that this sole C. littera specimen in BMNH is not a syntype, the evidence presented above suggests that it is likely to be one. This specimen in the Natural History Museum (BMNH) bearing eight labels: circular, yellow on one side, handprinted: / 890 /, white, covered in glue on the other side; round, white with red round on one side, printed: / Type / inside the red circle; rectangular, asparagus green, handwritten: / Brasil /; rectangular, asparagus green, handwritten: / Littera P. Mab. /; rectangular, white, handwritten in red ink: / littera / Mab. /; almost square, white, printed: / Ex musaeo / P. Mabille / 1923 /; rectangular, white, printed: / Ex Oberthür Coll. / Brit. Mus. 1927-3. /; rectangular, printed: / BMNH(E) #1982948 / is hereby designated as the lectotype of Telemiades littera. The following label will be added to the specimen after publication of this study: / LECTOTYPE / Telemiades littera / Mabille, 1877. Pet. Nouv. Ent. 2: 165 / designated by Grishin, 2014 /. This specimen is illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10 and its genitalia in situ in Figs. 26 a, g. It is a male and is recognized by two splits on right hindwing, from margin to discal band, at Rs vein and near tornus, left antenna missing, scales brushed off genitalia. This specimen seems to be the only syntype in collections. The lectotype is designated to ensure nomenclatural stability and to preserve current usage of the name, which is necessary taking into account that a new species very close to C. littera is described below, and taxa treated as C. littera subspecies are likely to be distinct biological species. The type locality of C. littera is " Brazil ", and the locality specified in the original publication (Peru) must be erroneous. Since C. littera specimens are known only from Rio de Janeiro State, it is likely that the lectotype originated in Southeast Brazil.
description: Published as part of Grishin, Nick V., 2014, Two new species of Clito from South America and a revision of the Clito littera group (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Pyrginae), pp. 231-248 in Zootaxa 3861 (3) on pages 235-237, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3861.3.2, http://zenodo.org/record/252285