Libythea laius lepitoides Moore 1901

Kawahara, Akito Y., 2013, <strong> Systematic revision and review of the extant and fossil snout butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Libytheinae) </ strong>, Zootaxa 3631 (1), pp. 1-74 : 30

Libythea laius lepitoides Moore 1901

( Figs. 117, 118 )

Libythea lepitoides Moore 1901: 57 , pl. 394, Figs. 1, 1a, 1c .

Libythea (Libythea) celtis var. lepitoides Pagenstecher 1902: 2 .

Libythea celtis lepitoides: Bingham 1905: 473 , 474.

Libythea lepita lepitoides Fruhstorfer 1914: 769 .

Libythea celtis var. lepitoides: Hering 1921: 262 , 263.

Dichora lepitoides Hering 1921: 263 .

Dichora (Libythea) lepitoides: Hering 1921: 268 .

Libythea lepita lepitoides: Antram 1924: 205 .

Libythea celtis lepitoides: Shirôzu 1960: 259 .

Libythea laius lepitoides Shields 1984a: 265 .

Libythea celtis leptoides [sic] Okano 1987: 5.

Diagnosis. Libythea laius lepitoides is similar to L. l. laius but it differs from it because the apical orange mark in forewing discal cell is fused with orange mark in cells M 3 and CuA 1. Libythea l. lepitoides can be distinguished from L. l. tsiandava in that the orange apical discal cell mark is separated from the triangular orange mark at base of discal cell.

Type Examined. Libythea lepitoides Moore 1901 , HOLOTYPE: ♂, India: Co [o]noor, Nilgherries [Nilgiris], Davidson ( BMNH).

Other Specimens Examined. (14♂): INDIA: 1♂, VI-1892 ( CMNH) . Nilgiri Hill: 2♂, III-1990 ( TFC) . Travancore : 1♂, Fergueson ( CMNH) . Nilgiris , 1♂, 20-I ( BMNH) ; Tamil Nadu, Dimbam, Coimbatore District Kollegal Taluk, 3000 ft [914 m] , 2♂, 24-VI-1896, N. S. Brodie ( BMNH) ; Madras ( Chennai ), S. Arsot Gingee, [450 m] , 1♂, 16-XII-1922, H. Latham ( BMNH) . SRI LANKA: 1♂ ( USNM) ; 1♂, Butler ( BMNH) ; 2♂, 1904, F. M. Mackwood ( BMNH) ; Nitre Cave District , 2♂, V-1902, F. M. Mackwood ( BMNH) .

Distribution. Southern India and Sri Lanka.

Remarks. Moore (1901) described lepitoides because it has smaller orange marks than lepita . Pagenstecher (1911) and Okano (1987) treated lepitoides as a subspecies of L. celtis , while Fruhstorfer (1914) treated it as a species of L. lepita , and Shields (1984a) recognized it as a species of L. laius . This confusion arose because lepitoides can appear to be phenotypically intermediate between laius and lepita . After examination of specimens of cinyras , labdaca , laius and lepita , I follow Shields (1984a) and treat lepitoides as a subspecies of laius because the apical mark in the discal cell widens proximally in lepitoides and laius but remains narrow in labdaca , and is Lshaped in cinyras . Furthermore, lepitoides has a lobe at the junction between CuA 2 and the hindwing margin (partially visible in the specimen shown in Fig. 117 ), which is absent in lepita .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogeny of snout butterflies based on morphology (after Kawahara 2009). Numbers above and below each rectangle refer to the characters and states in Kawahara (2009). A dark rectangle indicates a unique character state change (synapomorphy), a white rectangle indicates homoplasy. Large numbers indicate branch support (Bremer Support/jackknife). Due to limited space, outgroups are not shown in this figure.

FIGURES 117−132. Right dorsal and ventral wing surfaces of Libythea. The second image of each specimen shows the ventral surface of the wings. 117, 118. Libythea laius lepitoides Moore: ♂, India, Nilgiris, Conoor (BMNH); 119, 120. Libythea lepita formosana Fruhstorfer: Holotype ♂, Taiwan (BMNH); 121, 122. Libythea lepita amamiana Shirôzu: ♂, Japan, Okinawa, Nago (MTC); 123, 124. Libythea lepita amamiana Shirôzu: ♀, Japan, Okinawa, Shimajiri, Kitadaito−mura (TFC); 125, 126. Libythea lepita lepita Moore: ♂, Japan, Yamanashi, Hinoharu (AYK); 127, 128. Libythea lepita lepita Moore: ♀, Japan (BMNH); 129, 130. Libythea myrrha myrrha Godart: ♂, Indonesia, Java (BMNH); 131, 132. Libythea myrrha myrrha Godart: ♀, Indonesia, West Java (BMNH).