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162
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
GENERAL NOTE
BOLORIA TODDI OR BELLONA? (NYMPHALIDAE)
The eastern North American Boloria that for years had gone under the name bellona Fabricius suffered a change of name some 40 years ago. Hemming (1933, Entomologist 66: 276) noted that two species had received the name Papilio bellona in 1775, one by Fabricius and one by Cramer. With no way at that time of establishing relative priority of the two names, Hemming gave precedence to Papilio bellona Cramer (1775, Uitl. Kapellen 1: 20, pi. 13 figs. E, F), a neotropical pierid, because it was described more fully than the bellona of Fabricius and was illustrated.
With the name Papilio bellona Fabricius (1775, Syst. Ent.: 517) thus reduced to the status of a junior homonym the species had to bear the next oldest name that had been applied to it, which was toddi Holland (1928, Ann. Carnegie Mus. 19: 45), originally given to a subspecies from Quebec. This left the more widespread southern subspecies, formerly bellona, without a valid name, and Hemming proposed for it the name ammiralis. The combination Boloria toddi ammiralis Hemming came into wide and universal use down to the present day.
In 1958, however, the International Commission published Opinion 516 (1958, Opin. Decl. Int. Comm. Zool. Nomencl. 19: 1-44) assigning for the first time a definite date of publication (17 April 1775) to Fabricius' Sijstema Entomologiae and ranking the five major works published in 1775 in serial order for purposes of priority. By this Opinion Fabricius' Systerna Entomologiae ranks first (earliest in the year) and Cramer's Uitlandische Kapellen (Papillons Exotiques), vol. 1, pp. 1-132, ranks last, and all relevant Fabrician names take precedence over those of Cramer.
This action reverses the step taken by Hemming in 1933. It restores the name bellona Fabricius to use and thereby synonymizes the name ammiralis Hemming.
As a result the species must once again be known as Boloria bellona Fabricius, and the following revised entry in the check list of dos Passos (1964, Lepid. Soc, Mem. 1: 89) is needed:
BOLORIA (CLOSSIANA) Reuss, "1920" [1922]
599. bellona (Fabricius), 1775
a b. bellona (Fabricius), 1775
tmyrina (Martyn), 1797, nee Cramer "1779" [1777]
ammiralis (Hemming), 1933
etc. b b. toddi (Holland), 1928 c b. jenistai Stallings & Turner, "1946" [1947]
Although the information necessaiy for reaching this conclusion has been published since 1958, it appears to have been largely overlooked. Several authors recently have changed the name back to bellona (e.g., Bayer & Shenefelt 1971, Mid-Cont. Lepid. Series 2 (no. 27): 4; and other articles in this journal beginning in 1969), but so far as I am aware only once has an explanation been given (Kuehn & Masters 1972, op. cit. 4 (no. 59): 9), and that only a brief statement. Wider dissemination and a fuller explanation of the situation would seem desirable, so I have prepared this note.
Harry K. Clench, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.