Catocala delilah Strecker 1874
Creators: name: Hawks, David
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Catocala
Catocala delilah

description: <i>Catocala delilah</i> Strecker Figs 1, 3 <i>Catocala delilah</i> Strecker, 1874: 96, fig. 7, pl. XI. <i>Catocala adoptiva</i> Grote, 1874: 96. <i>Catocala calphurnia</i> H. Edwards, 1880: 59. <i>Catocala delilah</i> form <i>umbella</i> Barnes &amp; Benjamin, 1927: 7 <b>Type material.</b> <i>Catocala delilah</i>: lectotype ♁ [FMNH, examined], designated by Gall and Hawks (1990: 8). Type locality: [Dallas], Texas, [USA]. <i>Catocala adoptiva</i>: lectotype ♁ [MCZ, examined], designated by Gall (1990: 121). Type locality: Dallas Co[unty], Texas, [USA]. <i>Catocala calphurnia</i>: <b>neotype</b> ♁ [PMNH specimen #ENT 718629, examined], hereby designated to promote taxonomic stability (Fig. 3). Type locality: Burnet Co[unty], Texas, [USA]. Th e neotype bears the labels “Burnett [sic] Co. / Texas ”, “Presented by / HER- MAN PAUL WILHELM / October 1970 ”, “ Catocala / delilah / Stkr. / det. / D.C. Hawks 1986.” <i>Catocala delilah</i> form <i>umbella</i>: holotype ♁ [USNM, examined], unavailable infrasubspecific name proposed as a color form. Type locality: Kerrville, Texas, [USA]. <b>Taxonomic remarks.</b> The original description of <i>Catocala calphurnia</i> states “the primaries are of a wholly greenish tinge, and not bright brown… secondaries are wholly black, with the exception of a small central cloud… Exp. wings, 2.10 inch. Kansas. Type, coll. Dr. James S. Bailey.” Beutenmüller stated (1907: 149): “The type of this form [<i>calphurnia</i>] is a female in the collection of the late Dr. James Bailey, Albany, New York, and was examined by me. The specimen looks suspiciously like an exotic species allied to the European <i>nymphaea</i> Esper or it is an undersized aberration of <i>Catocala delilah</i>. Th e fore wings are almost completely uniform dark brown…” Barnes and Mc- Dunnough (1918: 33) stated: “We know nothing regarding <i>calphurnia</i> Hy. Edwards, described from a single specimen in the Bailey Collection ostensibly from Kansas; according to Beutenmüller, the species may be either European or an aberration of <i>delilah</i>; we leave it as the latter for the present.” Th e type of <i>calphurnia</i> has not been located, and the Bailey collection has apparently been lost. The potential confusion with Palearctic <i>Catocala</i> threatens nomenclatorial stability, hence the neotype designation. The neotype is one of three dwarfed and perhaps reared <i>Catocala delilah</i> specimens from the Wilhelm collection, with uniformly dark forewings and the yellowish basal area of the hindwing suffused with dark brown. Th e neotype thus agrees closely with Henry Edwards’ original description as well as with Beutenmüller’s assessment. The type locality is hereby amended from the original Kanss, [USA] on the basis of the neotype labels. <b>Diagnosis.</b> One of the two largest species in the complex, with mean forewing costal margin length 27.1 mm (♁), 30.5 mm (&amp;female;). Th e only species similar to <i>C</i>. <i>delilah</i> is <i>C</i>. <i>desdemona</i>. Both are similar in size, with a brown thorax, but <i>C</i>. <i>desdemona</i> has a paler and more yellowish abdomen that contrasts with the thorax. The forewing antemedial line is wide (ca. 2 mm) at the costa in both species, but in <i>C</i>. <b>Figures <b>Ι–</b> <b>8.</b> Adults of <i>Catocala</i>. <b>Ι</b> <i>C</i>. <i>delilah</i> Strecker <b>2</b> <i>C</i>. <i>desdemona</i> H. Edwards <b>3</b> neotype, <i>C</i>. <i>calphurnia</i> H. Edwards <b>4</b> lectotype, <i>C</i>. <i>desdemona</i> H. Edwards <b>5</b> holotype, <i>C</i>. <i>caesia</i> Hawks <b>6</b> allotype, <i>C</i>. <i>caesia</i> Hawks <b>7, 8</b> <i>C</i>. <i>frederici</i> Grote.</b> <i>desdemona</i> it abruptly becomes thin just past the radial vein; in <i>delilah</i> the line becomes thinner gradually. Th e brown line just basal to the antemedial line is usually less conspicuous in <i>C</i>. <i>delilah</i>. In contrast to <i>C</i>. <i>delilah</i>, the forewings of almost all specimens of <i>C</i>. <i>desdemona</i> are speckled with white or yellow scales, which gives the wings a distinctly gray cast. <b>Distribution and biology.</b> Southern USA from south-central Texas to Kansas, and eastward (mostly coastally) to Florida. County records for USA are as follows. AR- KANSAS: Washington; KANSAS: Douglas, Leavenworth; OKLAHOMA: Comanche, Carter, Creek, Mays, Oklahoma, Pittsburg, Pottawattamie, Payne; NEBRASKA: Gage; TEXAS: Anderson, Bastrop, Bee, Bexar, Blanco, Brazos, Burnet, Comal, Dallas, Erath, Harris, Hays, Kerr, Kimble, Medina, Montague, Robertson, San Patricio, Washington; MISSOURI: Greene, Organ; ILLINOIS: Adams, Jackson, Union; TENNESSEE: Morgan; MISSISSIPPI: Oktibbeha; GEORGIA: Macintosh; FLORIDA: Citrus, Dixie, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jackson, Lake, Lane, Levy, Orange, Putnam, Seminole; KENTUCKY: (no county). Adults fly from May to July, with most records from May and June. Larvae of <i>C. delilah</i> have been collected from <i>Quercus virginiana</i> Mill. (in Texas and Florida), <i>Q. fusiformis</i> Small (Texas), and <i>Q. laurifolia</i> Michx. (Texas).
description: Published as part of <i>Hawks, David, 2010, Review of the Catocala delilah species complex (Lepidoptera, Erebidae), pp. 13-35 in ZooKeys 39 (39)</i> on pages 16-18, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.39.439, http://zenodo.org/record/576631
description: {"references": ["Strecker FHH (1874) Lepidoptera, Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, indigenous and exotic; with descriptions and colored illustrations. Owen's Steam Book &amp; Job Printing, Reading, Pennsylvania (USA), 71 - 80.", "Grote AR (1874) Remarks on North American Noctuidae with descriptions of new species. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 5: 89 - 98.", "Edwards H (1880) Notes upon the genus Catocala, with descriptions of new varieties and species. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 3: 53 - 62.", "Barnes W, Benjamin FH (1927) Notes and new species (Lepid.). Canadian Entomologist 59: 7.", "Gall LF, Hawks DC (1990) Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). I. Type material in the Strecker collection, with lectotype designations. Fieldiana 59: 1 - 16.", "Hawks DC (1986) Systematics and ecology of the Catocala delilah complex. Unpublished Masters Th esis, University of California, Riverside, CA, 119 pp."]}