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Volume 25, Number 4
293
AGUNA CLAXON (HESPERIIDAE) NEW TO THE UNITED STATES
On October 21, 1970, while collecting in the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, Hidalgo Co., Texas, I took a single specimen of Aguna claxon Evans, a large skipper with green gloss above and with a white band across the secondaries below.
Evans (1952, Cat. Amer. Hesp. B. M.) separated A. claxon from A. coelus (Stoll). A. coelus has the hind wings short-tailed and is less vividly green above. A. claxon has the hind wings lobed rather than tailed, and is more brilliantly green above. There are also differences in the male genitalia. According to Evans, A. coelus does not occur in Mexico, but ranges from Central America far into South America. A. claxon occurs in Mexico and south into Central America, where both species occur.
In Godman & Salvin (1893, Biol. Centr.-Amer. Lep.-Rhop. 2: 287), A. claxon appears as Goniurus coelus (Cramer). In Hoffman's List (1941, An. Inst. Biol. 12(1): 244) A. claxon is listed as A. coelus (Cramer). According to1 Evans, the figures in Seitz, Amer. Rhop., are mixed. Of the figures referred to as Goniurus caelus (sic!) Cramer, the underside is stated to be correct. The upper side is that of Aguna aurunce (Hewitson).
The specimen of Aguna claxon was taken in shade, at the flowers of Eupatorium odoratum L., in the heat of the day. On the same plant, a single specimen of Bolla brennus (Godman & Salvin) was also taken.
J. W. Tilden, 125 Cedar Lane, San Jose, Calif.
REMARKS ON "THE USE OF NET-TRAPS AT PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES"
Mr. Jumalon's note under the above heading (1970, Journ. Lep. Soc. 24: 303-4) brings out some interesting contrasts between results there and in East Africa.
In East Africa, carnivore dung, that of lion, leopard, civet, etc., is well known for its attraction to many male nymphalids, and man, after all, is mainly a carnivore. It is perhaps worth recording here that the droppings of the domestic dog, although fed largely on meat, do not seem to be attractive.
The usual fruits used as bait in East Africa are banana, pineapple and mango; papaya is mentioned in literature, but I have never found it nearly as attractive as the first three. I have never heard of Custard Apple (Annona squamosa) being used as bait.
The trapping of Papilionidae, Pieridae and Hesperiidae is entirely contrary to my experience in East Africa and I am inclined to think that these were cases of low-flying butterflies getting under the edge of the very large net and failing to get out again, a situation analogous, perhaps, to the trapping of birds in mist-nets, rather than attraction to bait.
In East Africa the only species attracted to fruit baits belong to the Satyridae, Nymphalidae (mainly Charaxinae, Nymphalinae and Eurytelinae, with Neptidinae, Vanessinae and Argynnidinae to a lesser extent) and Libytheidae, and males of these species are attracted to faeces.
Almost all families are attracted to damp mud, but again males only. I have very occasionally found female nymphalids on patches of mud but am of the opinion that there is a primary attraction in the form of fermented fruit juices in such cases. The late C. L. Collenette was of the opinion that the major attraction of damp mud was its salt content, and pointed out that the most attractive areas were the banks of streams where clothes were washed or where humans and animals forded streams. Certainly, in my experience, the attraction of damp mud increases with the distance from the sea, it is far more attractive in Uganda than it is on the Kenya coast.
D. G. Sevastopulo, Mombasa, Kenya.