Telchinia excelsior usambarae (Jackson, 1951)

Takano, Hitoshi, László, Gyula M. & Collins, Steve C., 2021, Notes on some Tanzanian butterfly specimens in the Suffert Collection: a case of patria falsa, Zootaxa 4964 (3), pp. 585-597 : 590

Telchinia excelsior usambarae (Jackson, 1951)

The holotype of this taxon was collected and described by Jackson from the Usambara Mountains and is restricted to north and north-eastern Tanzania ( Kielland 1990). Two male specimens from ‘ Lindi’ were included as part of the type series. Three specimens are listed in the catalogue under ‘ Excelsior ’, two males and one female of which only the males could be traced. The two male specimens have the following labels: ‘// Para- / type [white disc with yellow border] // exc. / Lindi [handwritten in Suffert’s hand; label with black border and trimmed at base (illustrated in fig. 4 )] // Ex. Coll. / Suffert. / 1912. // Joicey / Bequest. / Brit.Mus. / 1934–120. // ’.

All of the aforementioned specimens carry Suffert’s handwritten labels, some with both an abbreviated species name and locality, suggesting that he either purchased pinned specimens which were unlabelled or more likely, he pinned papered specimens himself and attached his own labels to them. A perusal of the advertisements section in any issue of German entomological journals at the turn of the 20 th Century reveals numerous entomological dealers active in Berlin. It is not known precisely which of the dealerships he frequented but he was certainly a client of Rolle’s Institut Kosmos and Carl Zacher of Kottbusser Strasse 21. Another specimen of an Usambara Mountains endemic butterfly in NHMUK provides some further circumstantial evidence to suggest that an erroneous locality data was provided by the dealership rather than mislabelling by Suffert himself.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Handwritten locality labels in Suffert’s hand. 1. holotype female of Charaxes maudei. 2. paratype female of Charaxes pembanus usambarae 3. male specimen of Papilio hornimani hornimani. 4. paratype male of Acraea excelsior usambarae. 5. female specimen of Junonia westermanni splendens. 6. male specimen of Graphium illyris.