NEW North Carolina species STATE RECORD

[Ron Gatrelle]

Lepsters
On May 10th I located a small colony of Chlosyne gorgone ssp in North
Carolina. Location is withheld for several reasons. By checking various
sources, it looks that this is the first recording of this species in North
Carolina. I saw at least five individuals. There are some very interesting
factors with this find - which will eventually be published in TILS News.

I am the person to rediscovered the coastal region nominate subspecies in
both Georgia and South Carolina. I designated a neotype for gorgone gorgone
which is deposited in the AME, Sarasota Florida (U. of Fl.). Nominate
gorgone is a dark subspecies limited to the coastal area. My paper on this
is TTR 1:2 (1998). The first page and abstract of this can be accessed in
the "Taxonomic Report" section at the www.tils-ttr.org web site. I can send
a free copy of this to a few if you email me directly (need full mailing
address).

                        On a related taxonomic matter.
It is grossly inaccurate and unfortunate that the name ismeria is
continually associated with gorgone gorgone. I also rediscovered ismeria at
the type locality of Burke County, GA. some years ago and designated a
neotype for this which is also in the AME. (the ismeria neotype and a
female from Louisiana are illustrated in the www.tils-ttr.org Photos
library.)  The only scientific and published research on ismeria is that by
myself and the late venerable F. M. Brown. Brown was the first to
conclusively prove that ismeria was absolutely not a gorgone. Yet people
continue to not be aware of or just arrogantly ignore his research.

Ismeria is a rare southern (GA to LA) coastal subspecies of what we have
known as species nycteis. I say, have known as, because ismeria is an older
name - and as THE valid name for this species (ICZN rules) the
scientifically correct combination is Chlosyne ismeria nycteis. Nycteis is
still the valid and wide spread subspecies over the eastern United States
outside of the deep south coastal area mentioned above. BUT, for those who
choose to ignore trinomial names and only use the nominate name in species
check lists - the entity MUST be listed as Chlosyne ismeria. There is no
such thing as Chlosyne nycteis.  There is only Chlosyne ismeria nycteis.

This is especially important for butterfly societies and organizations in
the south where nominate ismeria occurs. These entities need to change the
scientific name listing from Chlosyne nycteis to Chlosyne ismeria, and then
leave the common name as Silvery Checkerspot which refers to subspecies
nycteis.
Ron Gatrelle



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

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

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