Pecks vs coras

[Chris J. Durden]

Ron,
    I met that southern Peck's skipper near Macon NC in 1957. I would place 
it tentatively as a disjunct race of the Canadian (and Middle Rockies) *P. 
peckius*. I do not think *P. peckius* is conspecific with *P. coras* 
of  the Dakotas through PA. I have not done the library and descriptive 
work to back this up.
    Kirby described *Hesperia peckius* from North America, probably 
Ontario. I remember reading somewhere once that the Kirby collection was 
deposited in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. I wonder if this collection 
still exists somewhere with a type for *peckius*?
    Harris described *Hesperia wamsutta* from New England, probably MA, but 
the type was apparently not saved.
    Cramer described *Papilio coras* from Surinam, probably Dutch 
settlements in America, NY. Any type is probably not recognizable.
    It looks like time to select and describe neotypes for all three taxa 
from as close to their probable type localities as possible. At the time 
the neotypes are collected they should be sampled for DNA analysis and 
chromosome study. Once we know to what the names apply, we can start 
recognizing the additional related taxa.

................Chris Durden

At 10:23 AM 8/18/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>. . .
>Up till now I have not done anything with Polites peckius. Over the last
>decade I have found a number of them in north Georgia and across the GA
>state line in North Carolina. The butterflies AND moths of that area under
>studied. Many undescribed entities exist there especially in the moths. The
>Pecks Skippers there are a good bit different than what I grew up with in
>Iowa. The confusion between coras and pecks, Kirby's vanished specimens,
>difficulty in finding original descriptions (OD's), etc. brings one to a
>dead end. At this point one can give up and continue with the junk taxonomy
>of the past, or do the impossible - try to find the OD's, type material,
>then topotypes are reconstruct the taxonomy from the ground up.
>
>Two things. First, let's say the pecks/coras in GA is an undescribed
>species or subspecies. Without factual understanding of the original
>populations of these names no description of the undescribed can occur.  So
>things go undescribed and thus unknown, though sometimes noted by say The
>Nature Conservancy.  Second, the southern undescribed pecks/coras/other
>population's range is tiny.  It would be amazingly easy to extirpate that
>entity via home building and farming in its area so that it would become
>extinct before ever known.
>
>I thus solicit information from any in eastern Canada with information on
>pecks/coras in the wild, and in Europe who can email copies of early
>literature (including OD's with color jpg illustrations) to myself - and
>more importantly dig through the drawers for any pertinent Kirby and Cramer
>material. Is anyone else working on this besides N. Kondla?
>Ron



 
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