Must see picture

[Ron Gatrelle]

I had lived in South Carolina for 28 years and never noted that the Pigmy
Blue here was unique. In fact, I didn't even think it was a resident. (Not
enough of a leps. researcher I guess.) Harry Pavaulaan of Virginia did
notice the difference. I was privileged to be Harry's junior author in
describing B. isophthalma  insularus, type locality, Beaufort Co. SC.

In the process of our work we noticed a difference in the antennal clubs of
true pseudofea from the Florida Keys and insularus. A difference that led
us to ask in our paper if perhaps there were two sibling species involved.
The antennae of true pseudofea have short spoon shaped clubs with prominent
orange red tips (sometimes over half the club). The clubs on all the
insularus we examined were noticeably longer and usually totally black or
slightly red tipped.

The differences in the clubs of these two are slightly noticeable on the
specimens figured in the photos section of our web site (
www.tils-ttr.org ). Harry recently found an excellent magnified shot of
insularus on Chapman's  Butterflies of Georgia web site
http://www.geocities.com/mikelchap/

When you get there select the Eastern Pigmy Blue - the black area to the
right is the picture. It is just so big you have to move the bar down to
see it. The antennal club is all black and typical of insularus.

Ron

PS   This is not the "Eastern" Pigmy Blue -  that is the common name of
pseudofea. This is the "Island" Pigmy Blue - which is the common name of
insularus. Common names need to be accurate too.

PPS  For those who subscribe to The Taxonomic Report and have the TTR Vol.1
CD, the picutres in 1:8 can be enlarged so this feature is readily seen.


 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl