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 : 200

Mirocastnia pyrrhopygoides smalli (2♀♀):

1♀, Prov. Guanacaste, Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Sector Orosi, Pico Volcán Orosi, 1440m, 09/Jun/2002, P. Ríos & C. Moraga, 10.95045, -85.54173, 02-SRNP-12897 (MNCR); 1♀, Alajuela, Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio, Cerro Montezuma, Punto 2, bosque primario, larva collected 08/XI/2010, adult emerged 09-Mar-2011, Col. José Antonio Azofeifa (MNCR) [ Mirocastnia smalli is a very scarce species, represented by only one female collected in northwest Costa Rica, deposited in the MNCR collections. An undetermined number of caterpillars of this species were found and reared in a Bromeliad host plant (undetermined species) from the Tenorio area by José Antonio (Toño) Azofeifa , who used to be one of the old INBio parataxonomists working on Lepidoptera and other groups of insects. Despite the fact that several of those specimens successfully eclosed were supposedly deposited by Antonio Azofeifa in the old INBio reared material collections (currently the MNCR reared material collections), it was not possible to find the adults, but images of one of them, as well as images of some immature stages were photographed by Antonio Azofeifa ( Fig. 9 ), and thanks to that, it is possible to have aspects of the life cycle of this species documented].

Figures

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.