Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli Miller, 1980

García-Díaz, José De Jesús, Espinoza-Sanabria, Bernardo A., Worthy, Robert, González, Jorge M., Janzen, Daniel H. & Hallwachs, Winnie, 2024, Synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Costa Rica, Zootaxa 5481 (2), pp. 151-202 : 168-169

9. Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli Miller, 1980

( Figs. 7A, 7B , 9 , 12D )

Mirocastnia smalli Miller, 1980 ; Miller, 1980. Bull. Allyn Mus. 60, p. 11, pl. 1, figs. 3–5, pl. figs. 15–18.

Mirocastnia smalli ; Miller, 1995, in Heppner. Castnioidea: Castniidae : Castniinae , Checklist part 2, Atlas Neo. Lep., p. 137.

Mirocastnia smalli ; Lamas, 1995. Revta. Per. Ent. 37, p. 85.

Mirocastnia smalli ; Moraes & Duarte, 2014. Zoo. Jour. Linn. Soc. 170 (2), p. 34.

Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli ; González et al., 2024. Zootaxa 5418 (3), p. 251, figs. 1, 5, 6C, 7F, G.

General comments. This was the last taxon to be described in the genus, based on material collected in Panama by Gordon B. Small during the 1970s ( Miller 1980; González 2023). However, individuals have also been found and reared in Costa Rica. It exhibits a marked sexual dimorphism both in the shape of the wings and in the wing pattern ( Miller 1980, 1986; Vinciguerra 2008; González 2023). The male forewing is triangular with a dark brown base-color and copper colored postdiscal and subapical bands. Females possess rounded wings, with a blackish base-color and two white bands on the forewing. The anal angle of the male hindwing is acute, the base-color of the wing is dark brown and there is an orange marginal band along the costa; whilst in females the wings are rounded, their base-color is blackish, and a turquoise blue band accompanied by two white spots is found from the costa to the anal angle. They also possess two postdiscal white spots. Ventrally, in both sexes the wing pattern is similar to the dorsal one; in males the base-color is light orange; in females some reddish tones appear on the hindwing, the discal blue band disappears, and the basal region is light blue. Morphologically, except for their variable size, the three taxa are quite similar ( González et al. 2024).

Ecology and behavior. Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli is diurnal and has been recorded around noon (11:00–12:30 hrs) between March and August in semi-cloud forest habitat over 900 masl in Panama ( Miller 1980, 1986). Gordon B. Small noted that adults of this taxon perched on dry branches in sunny spots, and that a female frequently visited epiphytic bromeliads on a Colpothrinax cookii Read, R.W. palm ( Arecaceae ) inferring that an epiphytic Bromeliaceae could serve as its host plant ( Miller 1980, 1986). The biology of this taxon was virtually unknown, but José Antonio Azofeifa (pers. comm.), a parataxonomist, who worked at InBio told one of us (B. Espinoza) that on November 08, 2010, he collected several larvae of a castniid from inside an epiphytic bromeliad that was 1m above ground level in the Tenorio Volcano National Park ( Fig. 9C ). The bromeliad seems to be in the genus Werauhia J. R. Grant (Francisco Morales, pers. comm.). The larvae were raised under laboratory conditions by J. A. Azofeifa and life cycles were monitored; however, it appears that the recorded information on the larval instars was lost, along with the resulting adults. Figure 9A shows an early instar larva with the typical creamy coloration exhibited by Castniini larvae ( Miller 1986). Each thoracic and abdominal segment has an irregular dorsal black horizontal line and two dorsolateral black spots; the last segment is almost black, the head is black, and the prothorax is orange ( Fig. 9A ). Final instar larvae ( Fig. 9B ) are larger, each thoracic and abdominal segment has four dorsolateral black spots and one small orange spot between the black ones, the head is black, and the prothorax is orange. One of the larvae entered the pre-pupal stage the day after it was collected (09-XI-2010), and it pupated after 39 days (18-XII-2010), the imago emerged after 120 days (09-III-2011) ( Fig. 9D ) (Jose Antonio Azofeifa , pers. comm.). The pupa ( Fig. 9E ) has the classical configuration of the Castniini ( Miller 1986) and resembles other castniid species ( Houlbert 1918; Miller 1986; Angulo & Olivares 1993; Sarto & Aguilar 2003; Penco 2011; Bénéluz & Gallard 2012; García-Díaz et al. 2022) in terms of shape and coloration.

Distribution and biogeography. This taxon appears to be endemic to Central America and most specimens known are from Panama ( Miller 1980); two specimens from Costa Rica are mentioned herein, one from Alajuela (Guatuso) and the other from Guanacaste (La Cruz). Based on both localities, we can infer that M. p. smalli might be distributed in southern Costa Rican localities over 900 meters above sea level. According to the biogeographic provinces of Morrone et al. (2022), those two localities are in the Guatuso-Talamanca province of the Pacific dominion in the Brazilian subregion.

Figures

FIGURE 7. A–B: Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli; A: ♂, Holotype, Panama, Panama, Cerro Jefe, ca. 900m. iii-11-1977, G.B. Small / 111078 6,7, Gordon Small Collection, MGCL/FLMNH Specimen no. 47927, UF FLMNH MGCL 1138161 (MGCL); B: ♀, Prov. Guanacaste, Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Sector Orosi, Pico Volcán Orosi, 1440m, 09/Jun/2002, P. Ríos & C. Moraga, 02-SRNP-12897, 10.95045, -85.54173 (MNCR); C–D: Athis delecta; C: ♂, San José, Museo Nacional de C. R., 4 de mayo 2001, Joaquín Sánchez, MNCR-E 55746, MNCR-A5055746 (MNCR); D: ♀, San José, Museo Nacional de C. R., 8 de mayo 2001, Ernesto Carman, MNCR-E 55745, MNCR-A5055745 (MNCR). Scale bar = 2cm.

FIGURE 9. Ecological aspects of Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli in Costa Rica. A: larva in first instar; B: larva in last instar; C: Werauhia sp., host plant of M. p. smalli in Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio, Guatuso, Alajuela; D: newly hatched female; E: exuviae; F: mounted female in dorsal (left) and ventral (right) views.

FIGURE 12. Distribution maps of the genera Amauta (A), Athis (B, C), Corybantes and Mirocastnia (D), Divana (E) and Prometheus (F) in Costa Rica.