Catocala blandula Gall &amp; Hawks, 2010, syn. n.
Creators: name: Gall, Lawrence
name: Hawks, David
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Catocala
Catocala blandula

description: <i>Catocala blandula</i> syn. <i>manitobensis</i> Cassino, syn. n. <i>Catocala blandula</i> var. <i>manitobensis</i> Cassino, 1918b: 81 <i>Catocala blandula</i> ssp. <i>manitobensis</i>; McDunnough 1938: 118 <i>Catocala blandula</i> ssp. <i>manitobensis</i>; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 129 <b>Type material.</b> <i>Catocala manitobensis</i>: the original description states “ Holotype 1 ♁, 6 paratypes, in the collection of the author, Cartwright, Manitoba, July 17.” A female at the USNM (USNM Type No. 44528) bears a label stating “manitobensis / Cass. / Type fide / Buchholz.” Because Cassino often missexed his material, we see no reason to challenge Buchholz’s judgment, and accept this specimen as the holotype by original designation. Cassino tabulated several characteristics supposedly distinguishing <i>C. m. manitobensis</i> from nominate <i>C. blandula</i> Hulst, 1884. On the dorsal forewing these included: a darker and more distinct postmedian band; a light to absent brown scaling distad from the postmedian band; and a lighter and bluish ground color, such that “the whole effect of the superiors is a bluish tint quite unlike that of <i>blandula</i>, the scales of which are more brownish.” We have examined specimens of <i>C. m. manitobensis</i> (including paratypes) and nominate <i>C. blandula</i> from across the Nearctic, and find that the characteristics ascribed to <i>C. m. manitobensis</i> occur sporadically throughout the species’ entire geographic range, especially in females, and see little merit in retaining the name <i>manitobensis</i>. Exemplary localities where specimens often show <i>manitobensis</i> characteristics include the vicinity of Chicago, Illinois, and the eastern seaboard of Maine and maritime Canada; the same characteristics also appear regularly in what we presently consider to be <i>C. blandula</i> populations from lowland coastal areas in the southeastern USA (e.g., notably around Gainesville, Florida). These lowland <i>C. blandula</i> populations are among the most morphologically variable known: some Floridian specimens (especially females) are nearly identical to types of <i>C. manitobensis</i>, whereas others have the entire forewing pattern obscured by brownish black, and numerous intergrades occur. In many respects, the extreme variation in these southeastern <i>C. blandula</i> populations is analogous to the extreme infrapopulational forms of both <i>C. connubialis</i> Guenée, 1852 and <i>C. crataegi</i> Saunders, 1876 seen from the same geographic region. Type Locality: Cartwright, Manitoba, [Canada].
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 61, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.39.425, http://zenodo.org/record/576632
description: {"references": ["Cassino SE (1918 b) A new form of Catocala blandula. Lepidopterist 2: 81.", "McDunnough JH (1938) Check List of the Lepidoptera of Canada and the United States of America. Part I. Macrolepidoptera. Memoirs of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 1: 1 - 275.", "Franclemont JG, Todd EL (1983) Noctuidae. In: Hodges RW (Ed) Check list of the Lepidoptera of America north of Mexico. University Press, Cambidge, 120 - 159.", "Hulst GD (1884) The genus Catocala. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 7: 14 - 56.", "Guenee A (1852) Histoire naturelle des insectes. Species general des Lepidopteres. Tome Septieme. Noctuelites. Tome 2. Roret, Paris, 441 pp.", "Saunders W (1876) Notes on Catocalas. Canadian Entomologist 8: 72 - 75."]}