Please check your Statiras! (from Florida)

[Andrew Warren]

Everyone,

If you have or have access to specimens and/or photographs of sulphurs in
the genus Aphrissa from southern Florida identified as A. statira
floridensis (Statira Sulphur), please read the short article at the bottom
of the following page, if you haven’t already seen it in the NEWS OF THE
LEPIDOPTERISTS’ SOCIETY (2011, 53(1): 3-7, 16 figs), to determine if you
might actually have Aphrissa neleis (Pink Spot Sulphur):

http://butterfliesofamerica.com/aphrissa_neleis.htm

Since the publication of this note, revealing five specimens of neleis
from the Miami, Florida area (from 1959, 1982, 1985) in the McGuire Center
collection, Linda and Buck Cooper and MaryAnn Friedman have found photos
they took in 2007, previously identified as Statira, that clearly are of
A. neleis! (all photos of same individual):

http://butterfliesofamerica.com/aphrissa_neleis_live1.htm

Thus, it now seems likely that A. neleis is a current breeding resident in
south Florida, that has been completely overlooked due to its superficial
similarity to A. statira floridensis.

So please, review any material you have access to!  We apparently have a
lot to learn about A. neleis in southern Florida!

If you have any possible neleis, please let me know!  If you have photos
you are unsure of, I’d be happy to look at them…

Thanks!

Best,
Andy

Andrew D. Warren, PhD
Senior Collections Manager
123 McGuire Hall
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
SW 34th Street and Hull Road
P. O. Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
www.butterfliesofamerica.com
www.flmnh.ufl.edu
www.lepsoc.org
JOIN THE LEPIDOPTERISTS’ SOCIETY:
http://www.lepsoc.org/membership.php

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20111120/8b24ee17/attachment.html