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158
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE ON POETS CENTURIE DE LEPIDOPTERES DE VILE DE CUBA, 1832
Roderick R. Irwin1 24 East 99th Place, Chicago, Illinois 60628
Of the ten butterfly names proposed or treated by Phelipe Poey in his Centurie de Lepidopteres de Tile de Cuba (1832), three are today applied to species occurring in the Nearctic fauna: "Terias" [Eurema] dina Poey, "Eumenia" [Eumaeus] atala Poey, and "Melitea" [Phyciodes] frisia Poey. In only the last species is the nymotypical race Nearctic. Three other names, "Polyommatus" [Hemiargus hanno] filenus Poey, Pieris ilaire Godart [= Appias drusilla (Cramer)], and "Callidryas" [Phoebis] orbis Poey, have in the past been applied to North American butterflies.
There is general lack of agreement among catalogues of North American butterflies in citing this work. Although Poey illustrated only a single species on each plate, in some references as many as three species are given the same plate number. These discrepancies are readily observed in Table 1, which contains exact quotations of the citations of the work by various catalogue compilers.
Poey's work was issued in parts, with unnumbered pages and plates, which were intended to be rearranged, numbered and bound on completion of the work, but it was never finished; only two of the ten projected decades of ten species each were issued. The work was recently ("1970" [1971]) reprinted by E. W. Classey Ltd. Colonel Charles F. Cowan informed me (in litt.) that he has seen three original copies of Poey, the one that was reproduced by Classey and two others, and in all the order of species is the same. However, copies exist in which the species are arranged differently. Through the kindness of Ms. Carolyn Jakeman of the Houghton Library of Harvard University, such a copy was located in that library. The arrangement of species in this copy is shown in Table 1.
Cowan (in litt.) suggested that the discrepancies noted may have resulted from the use of such a differing copy by an early author, possibly Scudder, and the repetition, without checking, of his references by subsequent compilers. The rarity of Poey's work may have prevented these normally careful authors from checking their references. The Classey text, agreeing in arrangement with most originals, will probably be accepted as definitive.
1 Research Affiliate, Illinois Natural History Survey, and Honorary Curator of Lepidoptera, Illinois State Museum.
Table 1. Arrangement of species in 3 originals and Classey reprint of Poey ( citations of this work by various catalogue compilers.
Callidryas Melitea Eumenia
Works
Poey 1832 (3 originals and Classey reprint)
Poey 1832 (Harvard copy) Scudder 1875-1876
Edwards 1877 Strecker 1878
Edwards "1884" [1885] Skinner 1898
Dyar"1902" [1903]
|
Callidryas orbis |
Melitea frisia |
Eumenia atala |
|||
|
pi [1] PP.[1-3] |
pl. [2] PP. [5-6] |
pl. [3] PP. [7-9] |
|||
|
pl. [1] |
pl. [2] |
pl. [3] |
|||
|
— |
2nd Dec. |
I[5-7] pl.2 |
|||
|
pl. |
pl.2 |
pl.2 |
|||
|
— |
p. 9, t. 2 |
t. 2 |
|||
|
pl.l |
9 pl.2 |
pl.2 |
|||
|
— |
9, pl. 2 |
t.2 |
|||
|
— |
9 |
ii |
160
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
I gratefully acknowledge assistance provided by F. M. Brown, Lee D. Miller, and particularly Col. C. F. Cowan, whose ideas and suggestions are largely embodied in this note.
Literature Cited
Dyar, H. G. "1902" [1903]. A list of North American Lepidoptera and key to the literature of this order of insects. Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. 52. 723 p.
Edwards, W. H. 1877. Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of America north of Mexico. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 6: 1-67.
----------. "1884" [1885]. Revised catalogue of the diurnal Lepidoptera of America
north of Mexico. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 11: 245-337.
Poey, P. 1832. Centurie de Lepidopteres de Tile de Cuba, contenant la description et les figures coloriees de cent especes de papillons nouveaux ou peu connus, represented d'apres nature, souvent avec la chenille, la chrysalide, et plusieurs details microscopiques. J. A. Mercklein, Paris. (2 livraisons only, of 10 projected.) 20 pis. 54 p. text (unnumbered). Reprinted "1970" [1971] by E. W. Classey Ltd.
Scudder, S. H. 1875. Synonymic list of the butterflies of North America, north of Mexico. Part I. Nymphales. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 2: 233-269.
----------. 1876. Synonymic list of the butterflies of North America, north of
Mexico. Part II. Rurales. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci. 3: 98-129.
Skinner, H. 1898. A synonymic catalogue of the North American Rhopalocera. Amer. Entomol. Soc, Philadelphia. 100 p.
Strecker, H. 1878. Butterflies and Moths of North America. B. F. Owen, Reading, Pa. 283 p.
MORTALITY IN A GROUP OF MEGATHYMUS YUCCAE (MEGATHYMIDAE)
Megathymus yuccae yuccae (Boisduval & Le Conte) was described in 1833 from Aiken County, South Carolina. This skipper was known in South Carolina only from the type locality until March 1971, when I located a small colony along Hwy. 174 south of Adams Run in Charleston County. In the spring of 1972 I found a very large colony at Edisto Island State Park in Charleston County. This area is 12 miles from the Adams Run colony. In 1973, three empty "tents" were found in a stand of yucca plants northeast of Mt. Pleasant along Hwy. 17 again in Charleston County. Dr. Douglas C. Ferguson captured a female on 4 April 1971 at the Wedge Plantation, Charleston County and Dr. Dominick collected two males there on the same date. In 1973 Dr. Dominick found a pupal tent in the same area, dug it up, acquired a live pupa and freeze dried it. The Edisto Island locality and the Wedge Plantation locality are at opposite ends of Charleston County, approximately 70 miles apart. The Mt. Pleasant area is approximately in the middle of the county. Thus Megathymus yuccae appears well established in coastal Charleston County.
In February of 1973 I decided to visit Edisto Island and dig up pupae of M. yuccae. This was done in the middle of February, which was a month earlier than I had ever dug up M. yuccae before. (By February the larvae of M. yuccae have stopped feeding and tend to stay in the upper portions of the hostplant. A few days before the larvae pupate they stop moving in the typical "caterpillar" motion