Vanewrightia subflavescens ( Kaye, 1911 ) Boppré & Grados & Laguerre & Monzón, 2020

Boppré, Michael, Grados, Juan, Laguerre, Michel & Monzón, Julio, 2020, Vanewrightia gen. nov. - A Highly Variable Taxon of Neotropical Ctenuchina (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Arctiini) Revealed by Behavioral Traits, Insect Systematics and Diversity 4 (5), No. 4, pp. 1-19 : 9

Vanewrightia subflavescens ( Kaye, 1911) comb. nov.

Figure 8A

Napata subflavescens Kaye, 1911: 143 (1 ♂). Type locality: BRITISH GUIANA. Type depository: McGuire Centre for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity, Gainesville, FL.

Napata subflavescens ― Hampson (1914: 261, pl. XIV, f. 19); Draudt (1915: 140, pl. 29c); Cerda (2017: 153).

Uranophora subflavescens ― Beccaloni et al. (2003). Following Grados (1999: 11‒12), some authors have included species formerly placed in Napata Walker, 1854 , in the genus Uranophora Hübner, [1831] . However, formal justification of this synonymy is wanting, and the type species differ considerably. Cerda (2017: 134) has separated the two genera on the basis of male genitalia.

Comments. Napata subflavescens is a small dark moth with a yellowish oblique band on the forewing. This band, clearly enlarged in the center, goes from costa where it is wide to tornus where it is narrow. The hindwing is angled, and the underside of the hindwing has the characteristic pattern of Vanewrightia , i.e., a basal yellowish patch with a bulge protruding into the wide dark border on the wing. In contrast to V. kiesela , the basal patch is restricted to the costal half of the wing, being extensively sullied with dark scales on the anal half. It is not known if there is intraspecific variation.

Potentially, V. subflavescens is a variant of V. kiesela . However, there is nothing to support this idea because the only available specimen exhibits a unique pattern not seen in V. kiesela (see also Discussion). Definitely it does not belong to Napata or Uranophora but to Vanewrightia because the male genitalia differ extensively from both Uranophora and Napata (see Cerda 2017: 133, 143).

Figures

Fig. 8. Holotypes of (A) Napata subflavescens Kaye, 1911 and (B) Loxozona patawaensis Cerda, 2017, both here transferred to Vanewrightia gen. nov.; left upperside, right underside. (C) Genitalia (dorsal, ventral, phallus) of V. patawaensis. Courtesy of B. Hermier (A) and J.-A. Cerda (B); (B, C) from Cerda (2017). Scale bars = (A, B) 1 cm, (C) 1 mm.