Web site info & Chlosyne ismeria data

Ron Gatrelle gatrelle at tils-ttr.org
Tue Jan 23 17:28:02 EST 2001


Many of you Leps-l subscribers obviously appreciate the TILS updates as our
visits/hits on the site go way up immediately after an update. The site is
not found yet by most search engines - though there are an increasing
number of sites that now have a link to ours. This current post was
inspired by a couple of off line questions.
 
First, the new photos are of Neonympha areolata (neotype male and typical
female), N. helicta (neotype male and topotype female), N. helicta
dadeensis (holotype and allotype), and Chlosyne ismeria ismeria (neotype
male).
(We may put up a pair of topotypes of N. helicta septentrionalis some day.)
 
On C. ismeria. We post our newsletters in their entirety on the site. A
click on News on the home page takes you to the News menu. Click on
November and you will find a brief article on the front page by myself on
this taxon. At the bottom of the page is the only figure of a female
ismeria to be found anywhere. This is a Florida specimen. This taxon was
described based on the drawing of the female (the original drawing is
reproduced next to the Florida female).  When at this page (which comes up
in Adobe Acrobat) note that at the top of the left toolbar that there is a
little magnifying glass icon. A click on this icon lets you use the
magnifier tool to enlarge the side by side figures of the female ismeria
and the drawing. The visual evidence is pretty conclusive that this is
ismeria.
 
Yes, ismeria turns out to be the butterfly long known as nycteis. Well,
kind of. Nycteis is still nycteis - it is the common northern subspecies of
ismeria. Two C. i. nycteis males are also figured on this News page - one
from Iowa and one from north Georgia.  Because the name ismeria is the
oldest available name for this rarely encountered subspecies it must be
employed for this taxon - especially now that it was formally published as
such in 1998. However, there are provisions in the ICZN which may allow for
a old name like this to be used in an inverted manner. In this case it
could be as C. nycteis ismeria if certain criteria are met. Workers are
currently split on which is the most correct. I feel C. i. nycteis is most
accurate. Time will tell.
 
If anyone is interested in a copy of my paper documenting the rediscovery
of the butterfly (after 200 years) in Georgia and its taxonomic
recognition, you can just e-mail TTR from the web site and I'll get a FREE
copy of the paper to you. (Just click open the mail box on the home page
www.tils-ttr.org .) Mention this offer came via Leps-l. Be sure and give
your full shipping address. (Individual issues normally go for $2.50 each
plus 75 cents postage.)
 
Ron Gatrelle
 
 
 
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