Porphyrogenes probus
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 probus

description: Porphyrogenes probus (Möschler, 1877)   
(Fig. 13-16, 65-68, 120, 139, 157)  
 Telegonus probus Möschler, 1877. Type locality: Surinam [Suriname]; female type (herein designated the lectotype, Fig. 13, 14) in MNHU.   
 Porphyrogenes suva Evans, 1952, new synonymy. Type locality: Lake Merced [Junin], Peru; male [holo] type (Fig. 15, 16) in BM(NH).   
 Description. Male (Fig. 15, 16, 65, 66) - mean forewing length = 25.3 mm (24.1-26.3 mm, n = 10; from Rondônia, Brazil); forewing with costal fold, apex produced, pointed, termen relatively straight, anal margin straight; hindwing termen nearly straight, tornus produced to short lobe, vein Rs arising nearer to end of discal cell than to its base and distad of CuA 2 (Fig. 120); dorsum brown, unmarked; forewing overscaled with tawny-ochreous, heaviest basad, semierect tuft proximad on anal margin; hindwing overscaled with tawny-ochreous posterior to vein Rs, vague indication of brown discal macules on some individuals; shining gray speculum as relatively large area in anterior discal cell, proximal 1/2 of Sc+R 1 - Rs, and proximal 2/3 of costal cell; long pale tan recumbent tuft near base of Sc+R 1 -Rs, slightly larger semierect pale tan tuft arising from near base of discal cell angled anteriorly to cover speculum in discal cell and, with anterior tuft, covering entire speculum in Sc+R 1 -Rs (Fig. 120); conspicuous erect tawnyochreous tuft along anterior edge of vein 2A, recumbent tawny-brown tuft from posterior edge of 2A; fringes on both wings very pale tawny.   
 Venter dark gray-brown; forewing slightly darker along outer margin, apex broadly and contrastingly paler gray, forewing vein 2A moderately sinuate, bare and moderately swollen in central 1/2, no welldefined groove (Fig. 120), shining gray-brown speculum in proximal 1/4 of CuA 2 -2A (continued to end of bared portion of vein as modified dark gray scales) and in proximal 2/3 of anal cell (continued to tornus as modified pale brown scales); hindwing with vague indication of darker discal macules; cell 2A-3A with deep groove just caudad of vein 2A.   
Dorsal head and thorax tawny-ochreous, eyes red, palpi ochreous-gray, antennae black on dorsum, yellow-orange on venter, nudum red-brown, 29 (n = 1), 30 (n = 1), or 31 (n = 2) segments, ventral thorax pale brown, pectus medium tan, legs brown proximad, orange distad, dorsal abdomen dark brown, gray at segments, overscaled with tawny-ochreous especially anteriorly, ventral abdomen charcoal gray or charcoal gray-brown, last segment pale ochreous.  
Genitalia (Fig. 139) - tegumen narrow in lateral view, broad and more or less quadrate in dorsal view, long, thin and slightly curved dorso-caudal oriented process from each side of caudal end, tuft double and relatively dense; uncus slightly decurved in lateral view, broadly divided in dorsal view, arms very widely spaced and short, ventral process of uncus broad; gnathos shorter than uncus, terminal ends rounded in ventral view; combined ventral arms from tegumen and dorsal arms from saccus weakly sinuate; saccus long and moderately broad, oriented dorso-cephalad; valva with costa-ampulla more or less rectangular, curving ventro-caudad to harpe, harpe long and broad, curving evenly upward and slightly inward to blunt caudal end oriented dorso-caudad, dorsal edge finely serrate; aedeagus about length of valva, broad with blunt caudal end; cornuti as cluster of thin and curved spikes.  
 Female (Fig. 13, 14, 67, 68) - mean forewing length = 27.9 mm (27.2-29.3 mm, n = 4; from Rondônia, Brazil); forewing apex produced, pointed, termen convex anteriorly, slightly concave posteriorly, anal margin slightly concave; hindwing termen convex, concave just anterior to prominent tornal lobe, vein Rs arising nearer to end of discal cell than to its base and distad of CuA 2; dorsum dark brown; forewing overscaled with tawny-olive, heaviest basad, two large white transparent macules more or less quadrate, in M 3 -CuA 1 below origin of M 3, very large in CuA 1 -CuA 2 centered under origin of CuA 1; hindwing overscaled with tawny-olive posterior to vein Rs, vague indication of brown discal macules; conspicuous erect tawnyochreous tuft on dorsum of vein 2A; fringes on both wings brown.   
 Venter brown; forewing overscaled with gray especially basad, margin narrowly of ground color, apex broadly and contrastingly pale tan, forewing vein 2A sinuate, modified tan scales in proximal 1/4 of CuA 2 - 2A and in entire anal cell; hindwing heavily overscaled with gray, dark brown discal macules vague to prominent; cell 2A-3A with groove just caudad of vein 2A.   
Dorsal head and thorax tawny-olive, eyes red, palpi ochreous-gray, antennae narrowly black on dorsum, yellow-orange on venter, nudum red-brown, 30 (n = 1) or 31 (n = 2) segments, ventral thorax pale brown, pectus medium tan, legs gray-brown proximad, orange distad, dorsal abdomen dark brown, redbrown at segments, ventral abdomen charcoal gray or charcoal brown.  
Genitalia (Fig. 157) - caudal edge of lamella postvaginalis with narrow and shallow U-shaped indentation centrally; lamella antevaginalis as rhomboidal central portion and broad plates laterad; ductus bursae moderately long, relatively broad and membranous with lateral sclerotized plate; corpus bursae elongate, not much broader than anterior ductus bursae.  
 Distribution and phenology. Porphyrogenes probus was known from Suriname, Peru, and Bolivia (Möschler 1877, Lindsey 1925 as Physalea vulpecula, Evans 1952, this study); Evans’ (1952) report for Costa Rica may be another species. Records (see also Austin et al. 1993 where it was identified as P. suva) from Rondônia (Jaru, vicinity of Cacaulândia), for April (1 record), May (1), June (3), August (4), October (2), November (4), and December (1), extend this distribution eastward into western Brazil.   
 Diagnosis and discussion. Evans’ (1952) illustration of the male genitalia (as P. suva) indicated a much longer harpe than on specimens from Rondônia. The species is readily identified by the broad gray apex on the ventral forewing (difficult to see on worn individuals) of both sexes. The female described above seems to be Porphyrogenes probus based on its size, venation, and presence of a well defined pale apex on the ventral forewing. This phenotype matches the figured type of Telegonus probus, a tawny female with two large white macules on the forewing. That specimen (Fig. 13, 14) in MNHU, originally identified as a male (Möschler 1877), an error repeated by Draudt (1922) and Evans (1952), is here designated as the lectotype of Telegonus probus. Its six labels are as follows: / Origin. /, / Surinam Bgdl. L. 75. /, / Type Verhdlg. zool. bot. Gesellschft. Wien. XXVI, p. 327 /, / Coll. Möschl. /, / Probus Möschl: /, and / Probus Möschl. /. Another female of a different phenotype (Fig. 49, 50), considered the female of T. probus by Möschler (1877), is yet another species. Also different is the female of T. probus from Suriname illustrated in Draudt (1922) and examined by Evans (1952) at the BM(NH). The designation of a lectotype fixes the identity of Telegonus probus to the female considered a male by Möschler (1877) and subsequent authors.   
 The male, described as P. suva, is associated by its general resemblance in wing shape, color and pattern, venation of the hindwing, and especially the whitish tips on the ventral forewing. Its type (Fig. 15, 16), one of three males from the type locality in the BM (NH) (Evans 1952), is the [holo] type.
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 pages 10-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5169696