Catasticta philais

Bollino, Maurizio & Costa, Mauro, 2007, An illustrated annotated check-list of the species of Catasticta (s. l.) Butler (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) of Venezuela, Zootaxa 1469, pp. 1-42 : 6-7

6 Catasticta philais (C. & R. Felder, 1865) (TL: Colombia, Bogotá)

(fig. 6: a-b; fig. 17)

The nominotypical subspecies is widespread along the northern part of the Colombian Cordillera Oriental, but is never common. Catasticta philais borgesi Eitschberger & Racheli, 1998 (TL: Venezuela, Táchira) is the Venezuelan representative of the species, and is restricted to El Tamá, where it flies in sympatry with C. philoscia . These species can hardly be distinguished in the field, but the following differences, mostly ventral wing pattern differences (fig. 1), are consistent.

A) FW yellow interneural spot in cell R4/R5-M1 large in philoscia , a small dot in philais . B) HW whitish area at base of cells M1-M2 and CuA1-CuA2) large in philoscia , small in philais . C) HW yellow interneural spot in cell CuA1-CuA2 (and usually also other yellow interneural spots of

VHW) long in philoscia , a small dot in philais .

No females of ssp. philais or borgesi are known.