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1960
Journal of the Lepidopterists* Society
177
A NEW MELANIC FORM OF CATOCALA CONNUBIAL1S FROM NEW JERSEY (NOCTUID^E)
by Joseph Muller
During 1956 to 1959 I caught seven dark Catocala at black lights, which I was not sure where to place at first. They look somewhat like Catocala micronympha form "gisela", but with the outer margin and the basal area concolorous or nearly so. Since I have never caught micronympha in this area, I thought these melanic specimens might be a dark form of C. connubialis race pulverulenta Rrower, which is taken at bait and light. In 1959 I obtained eggs from two females of pulverulenta, and reared them to adults the following spring. Among the offspring were normal pulverulenta and the melanic form. Exact count was not kept of pupae, and of specimens given away and set free; but of the reared specimens approximately 67% were typical pulverulenta, 11% pulverulenta with brown band showing clearly, and 22% the unnamed melanic form (see figures). The latter is hereby named as follows.
CATOCALA CONNUBIALIS PULVERULENTA form TBROWERF Muller, new form
This new form is a true melanic, having a deep sooty black shade over the whole of the forewings, head, and thorax, and having an extension of the black bands on the hind wings. These black bands are commonly fused near the anterior margin, and the inner band extends basally and over the disk from the inner margin. The brown or light band just outside the transverse posterior line is variable and shows more or less definitely across the dark shading, and the ground color may be lighter between the transverse anterior line and the base. The reniform and sub-reniform are not discernible, unless as a faint subreniform ring. Specimens are the same size as normal pulverulenta.
HOLOTYPE female: Lebanon, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 16 July 1958, at black light, leg. Joseph Muller. Deposited in the American Museum of Natural History.
ALLOTYPE male: same data, except reared from egg in 1960.
PARATYPES: four females, 23 July 1958, 27 June, 8 July, and 16 July 1959; two males, 2 July 1956 and 26 July 1958, all six at black light; ten males and nine females reared from eggs and emerging in 1960. A pair of reared paratypes is in the collection of A. E. Brower, Augusta, Maine; the three specimens figured, including one paratype, are deposited in the Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale University; the allotype and other paratypes are in the author's collection.
178
Muller: melanic Catocala
Vol.14: no.3
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1
Catocaia connubialis pulverulenta, reared forms from Lebanon, New Jersey. Top — form "broweri" (paratype); middle — brown-banded form; bottom — typical pulverulenta. (photo John Howard)
My thanks to Dr. Brower for examining this new form and critically reading this manuscript. It is a pleasure to dedicate this new form to him. Dr. Brower now considers pulverulenta to be a subspecific name, not that of a form.
R. D. 1, Lebanon, N. J., U. S. A.