Notas Científicas

 

New records of Castniidae (Lepidoptera) from Queretaro and Tamaulipas, Mexico

 

Nuevos registros de Castniidae (Lepidoptera) para los estados de Querétaro y Tamaulipas, México

 

Santiago NIÑO MALDONADO^1,*, Eva Ivette DE LEÓN GONZÁLEZ¹, Jacqueline Y. MILLER² & Uriel Jeshua SÁNCHEZ REYES³

 

¹Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Centro Universitario Victoria, C.P. 87149. Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, México. *<coliopteranino@hotmail.com>

²Associate Director, Allyn Curator for Lepidoptera, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, University of Florida. P.O. Box 112710 Gainesville, Fl 32611-2710.

³Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Victoria, Boulevard Emilio Portes Gil No.1301, C.P. 87010. Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, México.

 

Recibido: 10/12/2012;
aceptado: 16/04/2013.

 

RESUMEN

Se colectaron nueve ejemplares pertenecientes a dos especies de la familia Castniidae: Athis delecta (Shaus, 1911) (un ejemplar) fue registrada en vegetación de Matorral y Athis inca orizabensis (Strand, 1913) (ocho ejemplares) en Selva baja subcaducifolia con elementos de Encino y Bosque mesófilo. Athis delecta representa un nuevo registro para Tamaulipas, mientras que la segunda especie se reafirma para Tamaulipas, pero es nuevo registro para Querétaro.

 

The taxonomic knowledge of this family is limited mainly because they are very rare in natural ecosystems, their endemism, small geographical distribution, scarcity of specimens in scientific collections (Miller 1972, González & Fernández-Yépez 1993, Lamas 1993), and also there are limited studies on the group. Castniid moths are medium to large in size, from 20 to 110 mm; they are related to Cossidae and Hesperiidae, the distal portion of the antenna is similar to that of the Hesperiidae with a club and apiculus and the presence of three cubital veins on the wings. Few species are dimorphic in coloration although both sexes are similar in appearance (Miller 2000). At present almost 90 species belonging to 33 genera are recognized, even though some authors mention up to 106 different species (Lamas 1995, Miller 2000, González et al. 2008, González et al. 2010, Vinciguerra et al. 2011). The subfamily Castniinae is distributed throughout the Neotropical region and species have been recorded from Mexico and throughout Central and South America, including a few Caribbean Islands/Countries and down to Argentina and Chile.

One specimen of Athis delecta (Shaus, 1911) was recorded in the Peregrina Canyon, municipality of Victoria, Tamaulipas (Mexico), in a scrub vegetation; Athis inca orizabensis (Strand, 1913) was recorded in a scrub and low tropical subcaducifolious forest vegetation from the same Canyon (four copies), plus two specimens that were collected from low tropical subcaducifolious forest with transition between oak forest and cloud forest vegetation of Gómez Farías, Tamaulipas, within the Biosphere Reserve El Cielo. The specimens were collected between 12:00 and 14:00 hrs; the first species was collected on June 6, 2010; the first four specimens of the second species were captured in June 7, 2009 and June 6, 2010; and the last two specimens, also from El Cielo Reserve were captured on July 11, 2011.

Two more specimens of Athis inca orizabensis (Strand, 1913) were collected from Queretaro on July, 2012; one was obtained at the locality of Neblinas, municipality of Landa de Matamoros, within a low tropical subcaducifolious forest, between 12:00 and 13:00 hrs; the other was collected in El Pilón, municipality of Jalpan de Serra, in oak-low tropical subcaducifolious forest vegetation, between 13:00 and 14:00 hrs.

 

LITERATURA CITADA

González, J. M., Boone, G. H., Brilmyer, G. M. & Le, D. 2010. The Gigant Butterfly-moths of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, with notes on the Herman Strecker collection (Lepidoptera: Castniidae). Shilap Revista de Lepidopterología, 38: 385-409.         [ Links ]

González, J. M., Boone, G. H., Brilmyer, G. M. & Le, D. 2008. Notes on some Athis inca ssp. Collected in Mexico (Lepidoptera: Castniidae). SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterología, 36: 473-476.         [ Links ]

González, J. M. & Fernández-Yépez, F. 1993. Lista preliminar de las especies de Castniinae (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) del Parque Nacional ¨Henri Pitter¨, Venezuela. Diagnosis y Comentarios. Memorias de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle, 53: 47-53.         [ Links ]

Lamas, G. 1995. A critical review of J. Y. Miller's Checklist of the Neotropical Castniidae (Lepidoptera). Revista Peruana de Entomología, 36: 73-87.         [ Links ]

Lamas, G. 1993. Bibliografía de los Castniidae (Lepidoptera) americanos. Revista Peruana de Entomología, 35: 13-23.         [ Links ]

Miller, J. Y. 2000. Castniidae (Lepidoptera), pp. 527-531. In: Llorente, J. E., González, E. & Papavero, N. (Eds.). Biodiversidad, Taxonomía y Biogeografía de Artrópodos de México: Hacia una Síntesis de su Conocimiento, 2. CONABIO, México.         [ Links ]

Miller, J. Y. 1972. Review of the Central American Castnia inca complex. Bulletin of the Allyn Museum, 6: 1-13.         [ Links ]

Vinciguerra, R., Lozano, P. R., Hernández-Baez, F. & González, J. M. 2011. Observations on Athis thysanete (Dyar, 1912) (Lepidoptera, Castniidae) from Mexico and comparative notes to other species in the family. Biodiversity Journal, 2: 189-194.         [ Links ]