Castnia odila, (Houlbert, 1917)

odila ( Houlbert, 1917) View in CoL

Castnia odila Houlbert, 1917 View in CoL : Études de Lépidoptérologie comparée 13: 76–77. (figs. 5, 27–28).

Type material. Described from a single male collected by Marc Hüe de Mathan between May and July 1884 . This specimen is the holotype by monotypy, at the time of description it was in the collection of Charles Oberthür ( 1845–1924), it is now in BMNH. It was afterwards illustrated by Houlbert (1918: pl. 456, fig. 3829).

Type locality. “ Amazones, Pérou, Cavallo-Cocho ”. Cavallo-Cocho is actually the town known as Caballo Cocha or more properly Caballococha ( 3°54'S, 70°31'W) GoogleMaps . It is located on the right bank of the river Amazon in Loreto department, eastern Peru .

Taxonomic status. A junior subjective synonym of H. cronis ( Cramer, 1775) . This taxon was originally described as a species and treated as such by Miller (1995) but subsequently revised to a subspecies of cronis by Lamas (1995). It is considered here to be merely a variant individual of H. cronis , and therefore a junior subjective synonym of that taxon.

Distribution. Apart from the holotype the only similar specimen we know of is a male in RW recently acquired from Picuroyacu ( 3°37'S, 73°16'W), Loreto, Peru.

Discussion. The holotype appeared to be unique until a specimen was recently acquired by RW (see above). Haemonides c. cronis is known from Iquitos, Loreto, Peru ( 3°45'S, 73°15'W), which is only 300km west of the type locality of Castnia odila . There is also a small series of H. cronis from Iquitos in RW, however, the male phenotype is identical to that of typical cronis and bears no resemblance to the type of odila .

In the past there has been some confusion over the name with most people (particularly dealers) using the name to refer to all Peruvian H. cronis .

Material examined. Both of the above mentioned specimens were examined for this study.