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Vol.11: no.6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer wishes to express his sincere gratitude to Dr. Charles L. Remington, Department of Zoology, Yale University, for direction of the research and for help in writing this paper. The writer is grateful to Mr. Bryant Mather for providing living material and to Dr. William Hovanitz for providing a sample of his orange color grades.
Literature Cited Gerould, J. H., 1943. Genetic and seasonal variations of orange wing-color in Colias
butterflies. Proe. Amer. Phil. Soc. 86: 405-438. Hovanitz, W., 1945. The combined effects of genetic and environmental variations
upon the composition of Colias populations. Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer. 38: 482-502. Tanaka, Y., 1952. Change of the long-day effect to a neutral one in the photoperiodism
of a wild silkworm, Anthercea pernyi. Ann. Kept. Nat. Inst. Genetics (Japan),
no.. 2: 13-14.
Dept. of Zoology, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., U. S. A. (Present address: Nanzan University, Showaku, Nagoya, JAPAN)
SYNONYMY OF TWO AFRICAN EUTELTIN/F (NOCTUIDiE)
by Harry K. Clench
1. "Pacidara venustissima.JJ
P. venustissima has been the unequivocal designation for the largest known euteliine in the world, ever since Walker first proposed it in 1865. It was, therefore, something of a shock to discover that both the genus and species names are antedated by sixteen years, the earlier names prominently proposed, and accompanied by excellent colored figures, in no less a journal than the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. The type, further, is stated to have been placed in the British Museum collection. Since neither Walker nor Hampson make any mention of it, it is likely that the specimen met with misadventure sometime before they arrived on the scene.
For discovery of this synonymy I owe a posthumous debt to the late W. J. Holland, who had penned both name and reference on the label affixed to one of his specimens. The name, without reference, in someone else's hand, appears on another specimen, received from Roland Trimen, and I suspect that this was the source of Holland's information.
The rectified synonymy of the genus and species is as follows:
Genus Caligatus Wing Caligatus Wing 1850, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1849: 104 (type: Caligatus angasii Wing 1850).
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The Lepidopterists' News
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Pacidara Walker 1865, List Specim. Lepid. Ins. Br. Mus. 33: 830 (type: Pacidara venustissima Walker 1865, = Caligatus angasii Wing 1850, new synonymy)*; and subsequent authors: see below.
Caligatus angasii Wing Caligatus angasii Wing 1850, he. eit. and pi. 14, figs. 2, 3 (Cape of Good Hope). Pacidara venustissima Walker 1865, op. cit.: 831 (Natal) (new synonymy) ; Hampson
1912, Cat. Lep. Phal. 11: 3, fig. 2; Janse 1917, Cheek-List S. Afr. Lep. Het.: 33;
Gaede 1935, in Seitz, Grossschmett. Erde 15: 167, pi. 16a.
Hampson records the species from localities in Sierra Leone, S. Nigeria and Natal. Gaede simply gives "West, South and East Africa." Specimens in the Carneg'e Museum are from: Liberia (Harbel, leg. R. M. Fox; Cam-eroun (Efulen, leg. PL L. Weber) ; Natal (Pinetown, leg. Bowker, ex R. Trjmen) ; East Africa (Mombasa, leg. Wm. Doherty). Despite the wide range and complex wing pattern, I can see no geographic variation.
2. ''Noctasota curiosa." (Nyctemeridae, in error) When I described this genus and species a few years ago I came to the somewhat hesitant conclusion that it was an aberrant nyctemerid, though superficially little resembling any known member of that family. I was quite surprised later to find its likeness staring at me out of the "Eutelianae" pages of Hampson, while browsing through that work one day. It bears nearly as little resemblance to an euteliine as it does to a nyctemerid, but I am convinced that Hampson was correct in his placement. Its structure, however, departs so strikingly from others members of the genus Eutelia that my genus surely merits retention. The corrected synonymy, then, is as follows:
Genus Noctasota Clench Eutelia, Sect. I A: Hampson 1912, op. cit.: 16.
Noctasota Clench 1954, Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr. 50: 297 (type: Noctasota curiosa Clench
1954= Eutelia distorta Hampson 1912). Erroneously placed in Nyctemeridae.
Noctasota distorta (Hampson)
Eutelia distorta Hampson 1912, op. cit.: 16, fig. 9 (Kumasi, Gold Coast) ; Gaede 1935,
op. cit.: 168. Noctasota curiosa Clench 1954, he. cit,, fig'd. (Efulen, Cameroun) (new synonymy).
A few slight differences exist between the two specimens we have (types of curiosa) and the description of Hampson, suggesting that subspecies might conceivably be involved. A comparison of actual specimens will be needed.
N. distorta must be a rather rare insect, true of many Euteliinae. Hampson knew only his unique type; Gaede knew the species only from Hampson's description; and our two specimens stand alone in the collection.
Section of Insects and Spiders, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh 13, Penna., U. S. A.
*Note: After this had been type-set I chanced, by accident, on two more references, showing that this synonymy had been noted in print as long ago as 1894, by Holland himself. My chagrin is tempered by the fact that only Strand, among subsequent authors, seems to have noted it. The references are: Caligatus Angasii: Holland 1894, Psyche 7: 143, expl. pi. I (fig. 8) (illustrates 9) ; Eutelia angasii: Strand 1913, Arch. f. Naturg. 78 ("1912") A. 12: 93 (localities in the Belgian Congo).