Bombyx deserticola Berg, 1875a: 212

Beccacece, Hernan M., Vincent, Benoit & Navarro, Fernando R., 2014, The type-material of Arctiinae (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) described by Burmeister and Berg in the collection of the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia (Buenos Aires, Argentina), ZooKeys 421, pp. 65-89 : 75

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Erebidae

Bombyx deserticola Berg, 1875a: 212 Fig. 17

Current identity.

Paracles deserticola (Berg, 1875a).

Material.

Described from an unspecified number of female (wingless) specimens from the outfall of the Rio Negro (south of Buenos Aires province).

Type locality.

outfall of the Rio Negro [south of Buenos Aires province, Argentina].

MACN.

A wingless female syntype included in the Berg collection with a blue label with the inscription "Buenos Aires" and a red label with the inscription "Lectotype ♀ Bombyx deserticola Berg designated by Beccacece, Vincent & Navarro." We hereby designate it as lectotype [MACN]. It is in very poor condition, missing the apical part of the left antenna and a pinned cocoon (Fig. 17). There are two possible paralectotypes: a wingless female with a data label reading "Buenos Aires;" it is almost totally damaged and externally unrecognizable; a wingless female with a data label reading "Buenos Aires," "Cum typo/Comparat," which is in moderate to good condition with no antennae. None of these specimens is labelled as a type, which is usual for Berg’s type material. In addition, in the Burmeister collection there are three female specimens: a wingless female with a data label reading “Córdova” [ Córdoba], which is in quite good conditions, but the location does not match the location of the type locality; a wingless female with a data label reading "Buen. Ayres." [ Buenos aires ], which is in quite good conditions, with short antennae; the labelling is by Burmeister; a wingless female with no data label and another label reading “168,” which is in quite good condition and its habitus matches the species description. It is possibly one of the syntypes.

Remarks.

Berg (1875a) described Bombyx deserticola in German, but without all the information; in a Spanish publication “Lepidópteros Patagonicos observados en el viage de 1874" (The Patagonian Lepidoptera observed in the voyage of 1874) Berg (1875b) indicated that only a female collected from Patagonia and another unspecified number from Buenos Aires were described as Bombyx deserticola . Moreover, in the Spanish publication there is a note in the index in which Berg proposes this species as in genus Trichosoma Ramb[ur]. ( Ocnogyna Led[erer].). In addition, in the Berg collection there are three male specimens: a male with labels reading “Typus,” “TYPUS,” "Buenos Aires," " Laora deserticola Berg" (handwritten by Berg). It is in moderate condition with the distal half of the right antenna broken; a male specimen with labels reading “Cumtypo/comparat.” and "Buenos Aires," which is in good condition; a male labelled “Cumtypo/comparat.,” "Buenos Aires," which is in poor condition with no abdomen and the distal of the right antenna broken. These three male specimens cannot be paralectotypes because the description is based only on wingless females.