Castnia marius, (Fabricius, 1938)

Lamas, Gerardo, 2017, A review of the genus Haemonides Hübner, [1819] (Lepidoptera: Castniidae), Zootaxa 4320 (2), pp. 245-271 : 263-264

marius ( Fabricius, 1938)

Castnia marius Fabricius, in Bryk, 1938 : J. Chr. Fabricius Systema Glossatorum (Brunovici 1807): 67.

Type material. Fabricius stated “Dom. Smidt Mus. D. Lund.”. It was thought possible that the holotype (by monotypy) may be in ZMC but after searching the Fabricius and Sehested/Tönder-Lund collections, as well as the Castniidae in the general collection of the museum, this and other Haemonides specimens were not found so we must assume that the type is lost (Ole Karsholt, pers. comm.).

Type locality. "America meridionali" (South America). Brown (1988: 438) hypothesised that the holotype was collected in St. Croix, Virgin Islands by Smidt. However, it is possible that it came from Guyana instead (cf. Papavero, 1971: 21–22). The locality cannot be further restricted.

Taxonomic status. A junior subjective synonym of H. cronida (Herrich-Schäffer [1854]). Synonymised by Lamas (1995).

Distribution. Not relevant, see cronida above.

Discussion. The name marius only became available after 1938 when Felix Bryk (1882–1957) published a facsimilar edition of the (incomplete) “Systema Glossatorum” of Fabricius, hence the rather strange date to be associated with Fabricius. Fabricius (1938) also listed Cramer’s cronis in the same work. Had the “Systema Glossatorum” been published during Fabricius’s lifetime, marius would have taken priority over cronida .