Amauta discomaculata, (R. Kruger, 1928)

Worthy, Robert, González, Jorge M. & Zilli, Alberto, 2022, A review of the genera Amauta Houlbert, 1918 and Divana J. Y. Miller, 1982 (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) with description of a new genus, Zootaxa 5194 (3), pp. 301-342 : 325

discomaculata (R. Krüger, 1928)

“ Castnia cacica forma discomaculata Krüger. ” R. Krüger, 1928, Entomologische Zeitschrift 41 (22): 442–443.

Type material: Described by Krüger (1928) from some males and females, which must be considered as syntypes. Most other types of castniid taxa described by Krüger are in NHMUK but the discomaculata types cannot be found there. There are a few Krüger types in MfN so it is possible they may be there .

Type locality: Given as “Ost=Columbien”, thus Eastern Colombia. The types could not be found, and we know of no other records from eastern Colombia, so this locality must be doubtful .

Taxonomic status: A junior subjective synonym of Castnia cacica Herrich-Schäffer, [1854] (now in Amauta ). There are no features evident to separate this from typical cacica .

Male genitalia: Not available.

Distribution: Not relevant.

Discussion: The Code ( ICZN 1999: art. 45.6.4.) requires that a name given as a “form” before 1961 is considered to be of subspecific rank unless its author “expressly gave it infrasubspecific rank, or the content of the work unambiguously reveals that the name was proposed for an infrasubspecific entity”. In the original description by Krüger (1928) there are no clues that the author was considering f. discomaculata as infrasubspecific, rather there is contrary evidence. In fact, he was not describing a singleton but several specimens from Eastern Colombia as opposed to others from other places, including “anderen columbischen Lokalitäten”, where nominotypical cacica would occur. Further, he states that his form differs from “den bisher beschriebenen Formen oder Aberrationen”, which reveals that he was making use of the term “aberration” and did not employ it for discomaculata . We therefore consider this as an available name, to be retained in synonymy with nominotypical cacica .