Prometheus zagraea zagraea (R. Felder, 1874)

García-Díaz, José De Jesús, Espinoza-Sanabria, Bernardo A., Worthy, Robert, González, Jorge M., Janzen, Daniel H. & Hallwachs, Winnie, 2024, Synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Costa Rica, Zootaxa 5481 (2), pp. 151-202 : 178

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5481.2.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:547F19D4-4558-4D8A-8D01-2ECCCB133A5D
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12752789
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/2F6D87D4-324A-FFC0-FF4B-3AD5C3EDFA92
treatment provided by	Plazi (2024-07-16 10:37:07, last updated 2024-11-24 23:25:40)
scientific name	Prometheus zagraea zagraea (R. Felder, 1874)
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15. Prometheus zagraea zagraea (R. Felder, 1874)

( Figs. 8A, 8B View FIGURE 8 , 10C View FIGURE 10 , 12F View FIGURE 12 ) (BIN: BOLD:AAE6534)

Castnia zagraea Felder, 1874 ; R. Felder, 1874. Reise Fregatte Novara, Bd 2 (Abth. 2) (4), p. 3, pl. 79, fig. 2.

Gazera columbina Boisduval, [1875] View in CoL ; Boisduval, [1875]. Spec. Gén. des Lép. Hét. Tome 1: Sphin., Sesi., Cast., p. 546. Castnia cycna Westwood, 1877 View in CoL ; Westwood, 1877. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lon., Zoo. 2 (1), p. 191, pl. 32, fig. 2.

Castnia cycna var. minor ; Westwood, 1877. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lon., Zoo. 2 (1), p. 191.

Doubldaya [sic] zagraeus ; Buchecker, [1899], Syst. Ent., Sist. Insect. Class., Gen., Spec.: Pars 6, pl. 23, fig. 28.

Gazera zagraeoides ; Houlbert, 1918. Étud. Lép. Comp. 15, pp. 66, 630, 703, fig. 225, pl. CDLXI, fig. 3844.

Zegara cycna View in CoL ; Miller, 1995, in Heppner. Castnioidea: Castniidae View in CoL : Castniinae View in CoL , Checklist part 2, Atlas Neo. Lep., p. 137. Zegara zagraea zagraea View in CoL ; Lamas, 1995. Revta. Per. Ent. 37, p. 85.

Prometheus zagraea ; Moraes & Duarte, 2014. Zoo. Jour. Linn. Soc. 170 (2), p. 32.

General comments. According to Lamas (1995), Prometheus (Zegara) zagraea zagraea (R. Felder, 1874) was described from Panama. This species is a member of a mimetic ring that includes various species of Heliconiinae and Danainae ( Nymphalidae ) that exhibit a “tiger pattern” ( Miller 1986; González et al. 2010). The wing shape in both sexes is similar to that of Lycorea halia (Hübner, 1816) . Males are smaller than females, wings are not as wide, and overall coloration is darker than females.

Prometheus zagraea is polymorphic, which favored the description of various taxa, resulting in records from Costa Rica, Colombia, and Panama under different species or subspecies names (i.e. carilla , columbina , panamensis , salvina , zagraea ). Consequently, doubts about the validity of some of those names were raised, as well as the taxonomic status of the different populations found between Nicaragua and Colombia, and their respective distribution. A thorough review of this complex of species today dumped in the genus Prometheus (which we consider incorrect) is needed to clarify their taxonomic status and distribution limits.

Ecology and behavior. Adults are diurnal and fly on sunny days. Miller (1986) pointed out that females of this species have been sighted in Costa Rica laying eggs on the terrestrial bromeliad Aechmea magdalenae (André)André ex Baker, 1889 ( Bromeliaceae ) ( Vinciguerra 2008; González et al. 2010, 2017; Van den Berghe et al. 2020).

Distribution and biogeography. According to the bibliography and the specimens studied for the present study, P. z. zagraea is known from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia ( Miller 1986, 1995; Lamas 1995; Vinciguerra 2008; González et al. 2010, 2017). In Costa Rica, this subspecies has been recorded in the following cantons: Cartago: Turrialba; Guanacaste: La Cruz; Puntarenas: Golfito, Osa; San José: Mora. Based on the biogeographic provinces of the Neotropical region proposed by Morrone et al. (2022), in Costa Rica P. z. zagraea has been recorded in localities that belong to the Guatuso-Talamanca and Puntarenas-Chiriquí provinces of the Pacific dominion, and the Pacific Lowlands province of the Mesoamerican dominion, all in the Brazilian subregion.

References

Gonzalez, J. M., Boone, J. H., Brilmyer, G. M. & Le, D. (2010) The Giant Butterfly-moths of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, with notes on the Herman Strecker collection (Lepidoptera: Castniidae). SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterologia, 38 (152), 385 - 409.

Houlbert, C. (1918) Revision monographique de la sous-famille des Castniinae. Etudes de Lepidopterologie comparee, 15, i - xvi + 1 - 730, pls. 437 - 462, figs. 1 - 242.

Lamas, G. (1995) A critical review of J. Y. Miller´s checklist of the Neotropical Castniidae (Lepidoptera). Revista Peruana de Entomologia, 37, 73 - 87.

Miller, J. Y. (1986) The Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Zoogeography of the Neotropical Castniidae (Lepidoptera: Castnoidea: Castniidae), Ph. D. Thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville, 571 pp.

Miller, J. Y. (1995) Castniidae. In: Heppner, J. B. (Ed.), Checklist: Part 2. Hyblaeoidea-Pyraloidea-Tortricoidea. Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Association for Tropical Lepidoptera / Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 133 - 137 + 176 - 177.

Moraes, S. & Duarte, M. (2014) Phylogeny of Neotropical Castniinae (Lepidoptera: Cossoidea: Castniidae): testing the hypothesis of the mimics as a monophyletic group and implications for the arrangement of the genera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 170 (2), 362 - 399. https: // doi. org / 10.1111 / zoj. 12102

Morrone, J. J., Escalante, T., Rodriguez-Tapia, G., Carmona, A., Arana, M. & Mercado-Gomez, J. D. (2022) Biogeographic regionalization of the Neotropical region: New map and shapefile. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias, 94, e 20211167. https: // doi. org / 10.1590 / 0001 - 3765202220211167

van den Berghe, E., Maes, J. M., Hernandez-Baz, F. & Gonzalez, J. M. (2020) Synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) from Honduras and Nicaragua, Central America. Zootaxa, 4895 (2), 272 - 284. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / zootaxa. 4895.2.6

Vinciguerra, R. (2008) Osservazioni su alcuni taxa dei generi: Corybantes Hubner, [1819], Athis Hubner, [1819], Zegara Oiticica, 1955, Mirocastnia Miller, 1980 e Insigniocastnia Miller, 2007 (Lepidoptera: Castniidae). SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterologia, 36 (144), 491 - 499.

Westwood, J. O. (1877) A Monograph of the Lepidopterous genus Castnia and some allied groups. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, 2 (1), 155 - 207, pls. 28 - 33. https: // doi. org / 10.1111 / j. 1096 - 3642.1877. tb 00437. x

Figures

FIGURE 8. A–B: Prometheus zagraea zagraea; A: ♂, Estación Santa Rosa, Prov. Guanacaste, 300m, Junio 1995, D. H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs, 313000, 359800, INBIOCRI002427675, MNCR-A2427675 (MNCR); B: ♀, Puntarenas, P. Nal. Corcovado, Est. Cirena, 13-V-86, R Canet, INBIOCRI001056100, MNCR-A1056100 (MNCR); C–D: Prometheus zagraea salvina; C: ♂, Estac. Pitilla, 700m, 9km S. Santa Cecilia, Guanac. Prov., Mar1989, GNP Biodiversity Survey, W 85 25 40, N 10 59 26, INBIOCRI001056099, MNCR-A1056099 (MNCR); D: ♀, Estac. Pitilla, 700m, 9km S Santa Cecilia, Guanacaste, Mar 1990, P. Ríos & R. Blanco, 330200, 380200, INBIOCRI00091782, MNCR-A191782 (MNCR). Scale bar = 2cm.

FIGURE 10. A–B: Amauta procera; A: ♀, Golfito, Puntarenas, 19-II-2002 (photo: Gernot Kunz); B: ♂, Sarapiquí, Heredia, 06-III-2014 (photo: Matthew Grube); C: ♀, Prometheus zagraea zagraea, Osa, Puntarenas, 02-III-2012 (photo: GringoCurt); D–E: Divana diva diva; D: ♂, Puntarenas, Puntarenas, 27-V-2018 (photo: David Curlis); E: ♀, San Ramón, Alajuela, 27-V- 2010 (photo: John B. Schneider); F–G: Athis palatinus staudingeri; F: ♀, Golfito, Puntarenas, 08-II-2021 (photo: Chatelle Taylor); G: ♂, Aguirre, Puntarenas, 16-I-2020 (photo: Ted Armstrong); H: ♂, Athis analibiae, Talamanca, Limón, 09-V-2023 (photo: Heiner Ziegler); I: ♀, Athis clitarcha, Coto Brus, Puntarenas, 14-III-2020 (photo: Casey Owen); J: ♂, Athis inca inca, Sarapiquí, Heredia, 26-X-2018 (photo: Laurens Halsey).