Ephialtias consueta (Walker) Plate

Miller, James S, 2009, Generic Revision Of The Dioptinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Notodontidae) Part 2: Josiini, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2009 (321), pp. 675-1022 : 748-749

Ephialtias consueta (Walker) Plate 29

Josia consueta Walker, 1854: 304 .

TYPE LOCALITY: Brazil, Pará.

TYPE: Holotype ♀ ( BMNH).

Josia lugens C. and R. Felder, 1874: pl. 105, fig. 22. TYPE LOCALITY: [Not known]. TYPE: Holotype ♀, ‘‘Bates’’, ex Felder

Collection ( BMNH).

DISCUSSION: Ephialtias consueta is known exclusively from two females —Walker’s holotype (pl. 29) and the Felder holotype of lugens —both at the BMNH. Careful examintion reveals the presence in E. consueta of faint white spots along the abdominal dorsum, an important characteristic of Ephialtias . Furthermore, I dissected the female type of lugens C. and R. Felder. There is no locality data on that specimen, but a handwritten label gives Bates as the collector. It was therefore, in all probability, collected on the Amazon. The Felder type of lugens matches the type of consueta with precision; the two are undoubtedly synonyms, as Prout (1918) had proposed. My dissection (JSM-1545) confirms membership of consueta , formerly in Josia ( Prout, 1918; Hering, 1925; Bryk, 1930), in Ephialtias , where Kirby (1892) had placed it long ago.

Ephialtias consueta is the only member of the genus in which the HW dorsal surface is completely dark, but the ventral surface shows a diffuse white region along the anal margin. Prout (1918) originally described cassa as a subspecies of consueta . It does not show this white ventral HW spot. I have instead moved cassa to its new position as a synonym of Ephialtias pseudena (appendix 2).

DISTRIBUTION: Brazil (BMNH).

DISSECTED: ♀ holotype of lugens, BMNH (genitalia slide no. JSM-1545).

Ephialtias dorsispilota Warren , revised status