Pamphila puxillius Mabille, 1891

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui & Grishin, Nick V., 2022, Taxonomic changes suggested by the genomic analysis of Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera), Insecta Mundi 2022 (921), pp. 1-135 : 47

Pamphila puxillius Mabille, 1891 is a junior objective synonym of Limochores pupillus (Plötz, 1882)

The original descriptions of Pamphila puxillius Mabille, 1891 (type locality Mexico) and Hesperia pupillus Plötz, 1882 (type locality not given) mention Herrich-Schäffer after each name: “H. S. collect.” for P. puxillius and “HS. i. l.” for H. pupillus , and are very similar to each other, mentioning the same spotting, including one or two (but not three) forewing apical spots ( Plötz 1882b; Mabille 1891). Moreover, the names themselves are similar. The description of P. puxillius is based on a single male from Mexico in Staudinger collection, now in the ZMHB. A thorough search of the ZMHB Hesperiidae holdings revealed the presence of a single male, with the following eight rectangular labels: red, printed || Typus ||; white, handwritten || Mex ||, where “M” is in ink, but “ex” is in pencil, probably added at a later date, possibly after of Plötz’s description of H. pupillus ; white, printed || Coll. H.–Sch. ||; white, printed || Coll. | Staudinger ||; white, handwritten, old, typical of Herrich-Schäffer specimens || pupillus | Hs. ||; white, handwritten, typical of Staudinger specimens || Pupillus | HS. (i. l.?) ||; and two white printed || [barcode image] http://coll.mfn-berlin.de/u/ | 44a0af || DNA sample ID: | NVG-18052A04 | c/o Nick V. Grishin ||. This specimen matched the original description, is a Herrich-Schäffer specimen in the Staudinger collection, and is the holotype of P. puxillius , because no other specimens of this species were found neither among Herrich-Schäffer specimens, nor the entire Hesperiidae holdings in the ZMHB. Moreover, this specimen is also a syntype of H. pupillus Plötz, 1882 , because it agrees with the original description, is from Herrich-Schäffer collection, carries a label “ pupillus HS. (i. l.?)” with a similar attribution as in the original description: “ pupillus HS. (i. l.)”, and is a close match to the Godman’s copy of unpublished drawing numbered 532 of H. pupillus (in BMNH, inspected and photographed by N.V.G.). Even the detail that a forewing above has two apical spots, but below only one is clearly visible, is depicted in this drawing. We were not able to locate other syntypes (maybe no others existed), and N.V.G. hereby designates this specimen NVG-18052A04 as the lectotype of Hesperia pupillus Plötz, 1882 to stabilize the usage of this name as it was intended by Plötz. This action makes Pamphila puxillius Mabille, 1891 a junior objective synonym of Limochores pupillus (Plötz, 1882) .