Pyrgus albescens (Calhoun, 2002)

Miller, Jacqueline Y., Matthews, Deborah L. & Warren, Andrew D., 2018, A checkered history: distribution of Pyrgus Hübner species in The Bahamas, including the first Caribbean records of Pyrgus albescens Plötz (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), Insecta Mundi 635, pp. 1-9 : 3-4

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.3708124

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:A8FADFAE-5BA0-4F73-B599-AA01C0C1EACD

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3717051

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/703E2A68-4254-8222-FF00-FA00FE1ED6F8

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Pyrgus albescens
status

 

Specimens Examined— Pyrgus albescens View in CoL

BAHAMAS: North Abaco: 1.8 mi. SE of Cooperstown , 26.850533°, –77.486085°, 6 Jun 2016, J. Miller, M. Simon, G. Goss, D. Matthews, MGCL Acc. No. 2016-9 (3 F, MGCL 247037 , 247045 , 247046 ) ; same data except 7 Jun 2016 (2 M, MGCL 247058 , 247454 ) ; Grand Bahama Island: Freeport, area SE of Britannia Blvd. & Sunset Hwy. , 26.513233°, –78.679429°, 25 Oct 2014, J.Y. Miller & D. Matthews, MGCL Acc. No. 2014-31 (1 F, MGCL 243480 ) .

We observed many differences in wing pattern between Pyrgus oileus ( Fig. 1–4 View Figures 1–8 ) and P. albescens ( Fig. 5–8 View Figures 1–8 ) from The Bahamas, which have been summarized by other authors from North America (e.g., MacNeill 1975). In nature, checkered skippers generally land with their wings held open, exposing the dorsal wing pattern; ventral surfaces are rarely exposed during daily activity, although adults perch with their wings tightly closed during the night and periods of poor weather, exposing the more cryptically colored ventral wing pattern. Thus, most observations of checkered skippers will be of the upperside only. We have found that the most convenient dorsal wing character to separate the species is the presence (in P. oileus , Fig. 1,3) or absence (in P. albescens , as well as in P. communis ) of the small white spot at the distal end of the forewing discal cell ( Fig. 3 View Figures 1–8 arrow). While the size of this spot on P. oileus is variable, and a trace of the spot is very rarely discernable on unusual specimens of P. albescens or P. communis , this is generally a very reliable feature to separate the two taxa. If only the ventral surface of a checkered skipper in The Bahamas is observed, the presence (in P. oileus ) of a dark streak along the ventral hindwing costa (absent in P. albescens ), at about mid-wing ( Fig. 4 View Figures 1–8 arrow), will separate the two species. This same feature also separates P. oileus from the very closely related P. orcus (Stoll, 1780) (which lacks this dark macule), a taxon distributed further east in the Caribbean and in Central and South America ( Evans 1953, Austin and Warren 2001).

Valvae of P. oileus from The Bahamas (n = 1 from Great Inagua, 3 from Grand Bahama) were similar to those from south Florida (n = 3), Cuba (n = 3) and Hispaniola (n = 3). Valvae of both male P. albescens specimens from North Abaco were examined; these likewise exhibited no differences compared to recently collected male P. albescens from north Florida (n = 1 from Bay County, 1 from Clay County, 4 from Marion County).

MGCL

MGCL

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

Family

Hesperiidae

Genus

Pyrgus

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