Revision of Zaphanta Dyar, 1910 (Lepidoptera: Mimallonidae: Zaphantinae), with descriptions of nine new species

ABSTRACT

A genus of small, yellow mimallonid moths, Zaphanta Dyar, is revised. This genus has been shown to be sister to the remainder of Mimallonidae, and therefore has been placed in its own monogeneric subfamily, Zaphantinae St Laurent and Kawahara. Long considered monotypic or bitypic, Zaphanta have not been the focus of any systematic treatment. The moths belonging to this genus are found throughout Central and South America, and detailed examination of several disparate, as well as sympatric, populations of Zaphanta have revealed numerous undescribed species all of similar appearance, but with distinct male genitalia, which we describe here. We redescribe Z. infantilis Dyar and Z. fraterna Schaus, and describe the females of both for the first time. An additional nine new species are described and figured from the Amazon, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest: Z. acuta sp. nov., Z. anas sp. nov., Z. bahiana sp. nov., Z. beckeri sp. nov., Z. elephanta sp. nov., Z. elephanticula sp. nov., Z. machaera sp. nov., Z. rawlinsi sp. nov. and Z. stiletto sp. nov. One of these, Z. beckeri, may be extremely imperilled due to deforestation.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B45DDB85-977F-42EF-9F2F-DB48827E521Ehttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C6F7DBF4-4871-403D-A387-DD920BA76D8Bhttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C4C8DAAF-8C60-4C16-A626-3641EA3817FBhttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:6A57E1CC-D3E5-4E45-8C82-7006295ADF1Fhttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:03241157-1925-4EF6-B426-A8E816C7E457http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A00749E5-888C-45FB-8FAA-0302A402496Fhttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:89132977-91DC-4424-9C0E-98A954E467CAhttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:11AA3541-C7A4-4292-A5CA-10B89C5FAD2Chttp://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A5FA3ED1-5994-46B4-B018-1FA055C76496http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:F1C63621-EF30-40B1-B437-87A79BD7E339

KEYWORDS:

• Amazon
• Atlantic Forest
• Brazil
• Cerrado
• Mimallonoidea
• neotropical

Acknowledgements

This article would not have been possible without the assistance of several institutional collections. The following individuals and their institutions provided specimens and photographs for this research: Carlos Mielke (CGCM), John Rawlins and Vanessa Verdecia (CMNH), Christian Schmidt and Jocelyn Gill (CNC), Jason Dombroskie (CUIC), Andy Warren and Andrei Sourakov (MGCL), Alfred Moser (CLAM), Matthew Cock (MJWC), the late Philippe Collet (CPC), Stefan Naumann (provided photos from MNHU) and Brian Harris, Scott Miller and Nick Silverson (USNM). Vitor Becker (VOB) permitted access to his Zaphanta material, and prepared a genital dissection for examination, allowing for recognition of Z. machaera as a new species. Jason Dombroskie assisted the first author in visiting VOB. Lena Struwe (Rutgers University) permitted us to publish her photo of a living Z. fraterna. Richard I. Vane-Wright (NHMUK/University of Kent, UK) and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript. We also thank the publishers at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University, USA) for permitting adoption of Forbes’ (1942) Zaphanta venation diagram for use in this work (via CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by the Departmental Investment Fund (DIF) of the Natural History Museum, London, UK (DIF - NHMUK).