Catocala praeclara subsp. charlottae Brou 1988
Creators: name: Gall, Lawrence
name: Hawks, David
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Catocala
Catocala praeclara
Catocala praeclara ssp. charlottae brou

description: <i>Catocala praeclara</i> ssp. <i>charlottae</i> Brou, stat. n. <i>Catocala charlottae</i> Brou, 1988: 116 <b>Type material.</b> <i>Catocala charlottae</i>: holotype ♁ [USNM, examined]. Th e original description inexplicably compared <i>C. charlottae</i> only to the sympatric <i>C. alabamae</i> Grote, 1875, and not to the more similar and widespread <i>C. praeclara</i> Grote &amp; Robinson, 1866. Specimens of <i>C. charlottae</i> have been reported from a scattering of counties abutting or near the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida; although several hundred specimens have been collected from the type locality (Abita Springs) only a few dozen specimens exist from all other localities combined. Th e type locality of <i>C. charlottae</i> is also the most southwesterly population known for <i>praeclara</i>, and appears to be somewhat isolated geographically from other Gulf Coast populations, although we suspect this may be an artifact of limited sampling. We have examined a series of over one hundred topotypes of <i>C. charlottae</i>, and although these are fairly homogeneous (forewings largely lacking both the lustrous blue-green scaling and prominent basal dash, and with an overshading of brown), about five percent of the topotypes are like <i>C. praeclara</i> from other localities in North America. Baggett (1989) reported that “ <i>charlottae</i> and a <i>praeclara</i> -like morph were reared from the same batch of eggs,” and J. Slotten (in litt.) has reared specimens both with and without the basal dash from the same female. Th e larva of <i>C. charlottae</i> is similar to nominate <i>C. praeclara</i>, and unlike the larva of <i>C. alabamae</i>. Given these rearing results, and the broad overlap in morphological variation of adult <i>C. charlottae</i> and <i>C. praeclara</i>, we consider <i>C. charlottae</i> to be best treated as a subspecies of <i>C. praeclara</i> Grote &amp; Robinson, 1866. Additional collecting and ex ovis rearing are desirable from the southern United States, notably in the apparent sampling gap in Mississippi and Alabama. See the account for <i>C. manitoba</i> Beutenmüller, 1908 below for further discussion of geographic variability in <i>C. praeclara</i>. Type Locality: 4.2 mi. NE Abita Springs, S[ain]t Tammany Parish, Louisiana, [USA].
description: Published as part of <i>Gall, Lawrence &amp; Hawks, David, 2010, Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) IV. Nomenclatorial stabilization of the Nearctic fauna, with a revised synonymic check list, pp. 37-83 in ZooKeys 39 (39)</i> on page 46, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.39.425, http://zenodo.org/record/576632
description: {"references": ["Brou VA (1988) A new species of Catocala from the southeast United States. Journal of The Lepidopterists' Society 42: 116 - 119.", "Baggett HD (1989) Zone IV Florida. Southern Lepidopterists' News 11: 33.", "Beutenmuller W (1908) Description of a new Catocala. Entomological News 19: 54 - 55."]}