Three favorite Eudocimas

[vabrou]

Upper image Paratype ♀ - Eudocima steppingstonia Brou et al, Marquesas Isl.
Middle image Holotype ♂ - Eudocima oliveri Zilli and Brou, Vanuatu (Aneityum)
Lower image Holotype ♂ - Eudocima lequeuxi Brou and Zilli S Rwanda, Butare 1750m 1977-April 11 Coll B Turlin

[Cabintom]

Vernon, I didn't know you had dabbled in African taxa.

Here are the 3 Eudocima species I've collected:

Eudocima materna


Eudocima afrikana


Eudocima divitiosa



I only dabble in moths, so I don't know much about them (and hope I've got the right IDs). They are a fun surprise in the bait trap though.
Incidentally, all were caught in April & May 2016 here in Bunia, Ituri, DRC.

[vabrou]

Cabintom,

Back in October 2006 I captured a single ♀ specimen of the large noctuidae moth Eudocima serpentifera (Walker) in a UV light trap at my home in southeast Louisiana. This species was a new record for the USA. When I looked into the published scientific literature to identify this specimen, I found that several of the species were misidentified with incorrect names in the major publications, including E. serpentifera. Also looking at hundreds of images of all world species of Eudocima on the web over several months, I found that hundreds of them were also misidentified throughout the world. In fact nearly every Eudocima image I looked at was misidentified (~ 40 different species).

E. serpentifera in Seitz were identified incorrectly as Eudocima procus (Cramer), and E. apta (Walker) were identified incorrectly by Seitz as E. serpentifera. This misidentification of serpentifera, apta, and procus in Seitz has led to much confusion in the identification of these species.

Here in North America only one name Eudocima materna has appeared on our checklist for over a century. One specimen was illustrated in The Moth Book Holland, W.J. 1903. And that specimen was labeled Eudocima materna. The problem is no one was ever interested in looking into the lone Eudocima species on our NA lepidoptera checklist.

Over the past half century of operating mostly 5-7 or more high wattage UV light traps, I also captured 4 Eudocima adults which would be incorrectly called E. materna. Lots more investigating the old literature, I discovered that E. materna is an old world species Type locality India and the similar appearing Eudocima apta (a new world species) was described from Dominican Republic and Brazil. So the species occurring in North America are E. apta, not E. materna. Adding to the confusion the specimen illustrated in the Holland 1903 Moth Book on North American moths is indeed E. materna and obviously did not originate in North America. No one here in North America ever bothered looking into this matter taxonomically.

So, I published about the new North American record for E. serpentifera I also addressed the E. apta/E. materna matter. I also removed the one name E. materna from our NA checklist and replaced it with E. apta, E. serpentifera and also added a Palearctic species Eudocima tyrannus which was captured at an oil rig in the Aleutian Islands (a third species of Eudocima for N. A.)

In my attempts to get papered Eudocima from various world locations I discovered several new undescribed species. The only person familiar with the genus Eudocima on a world basis was Alberto Zilli and we began correspondence when he worked at an Italian Museum. Shortly thereafter, Alberto found employment at the Nat His. Mus. London, which probably has the most extensive Museum collection of world Eudocima species. I sent Alberto of some images of a new undescribed species from Africa I had acquired from a well-known butterfly collector in Uganda (J.P. Lequeux), and asked him if there were any of these previously unrecognized specimens mixed into the NHML collection there.

Indeed there were 80+ unrecognized specimens from: Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, British East Africa, Congo (Democratic Republic), Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana, dates of capture going back to 1888. I found this surprising because the genus and closely related genera were worked over previously by some of the biggest names in entomological literature.
Subsequently we described this new species in 2016, Zootaxa: 4109 (3): 391–399
An overlooked sibling of the fruit-piercing moth Eudocima phalonia (Linnaeus, 1763) from Africa (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Calpinae) - V.A. Brou Jr. & A. Zilli.

Shortly after I discovered two additional new species (Solomon Isl. and Marquesas Isl.) of undescribed Eudocima and sent images to Alberto at the NHML, and he indeed found a small series of each of them there and while reviewing the uncurated Eudocima material discovered still another new undescribed Eudocima species. We began working on species descriptions for these three new species of Eudocima which broadened into a publication addressing about 30 different species occurring in the South Pacific. And we illustrated for the first time several species described over a century ago, but images of those were never illustrated previously anywhere in scientific literature. Our 2017 publication:

The Eudocima Billberg, 1820 of the Australian Region (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Calpinae)

in which we described as new to science,
E. oliveri sp. nov. (Vanuatu)
E. martini sp. nov. (Solomon Archipelago)
E. steppingstonia sp. nov. (Marquesas Is).

Saying all that, Alberto and I have now described 4 new Eudocima, and Alberto had earlier described 4 new species from the Philippines. We still have 4 or more additional new, yet to be described species of Eudocima, but are looking for more material to better work on those. It seems as though I presently have the largest private collection of world Eudocima.

……Collection of world Eudocima (approximately 10,000+ adult specimens) 42 species from 42 countries of the world and many island locations presently housed near Abita Springs, Louisiana.

…….We also have spent the past 54 years collecting in Louisiana, USA nonstop, especially the Lepidoptera of Louisiana, USA. My wife and I have discovered over 400 species of moths new to science here in Louisiana and have never turned off for even one minute our ~500 self-designed insect traps since turning them on beginning in 1969.

…….We also have approximately 500,000 pinned and labeled specimens in ~ 662 Cornel-sized specimen drawers, primarily Louisiana Lepidoptera in large series, presently housed near Abita Springs, Louisiana. This master research collection of Louisiana insects (especially Lepidoptera) will eventually be deposited in the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum where we have already donated about ¼ million specimens to, over the past half century.

……We also had a collection of world Sphingidae (approx. 40,000 adult specimens) 800+ species from 120 countries of the world. --Sold 1987. Now located at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida. We personally captured about 200,000 wild adult hawkmoths in the state of Louisiana, including two new species right here at our home location.

…….Besides concentrating upon Sphingidae, we also have run about 250 automatic capture clearwing moth traps, capturing ~400,000 wild adults (60 species), --- 35 described species and 25 species new to science).

…… We also have previously donated collections in USA only (1971-2019) to USNM, AMNH, LACM, LSAM, FSCA, McGuire Center, Grand total (in the USA only 348,829) mostly adult Lepidoptera of Louisiana for which we have independent appraisals, as these appraisals were necessary and used as tax write-offs over the past half century.

…….We also placed in Museums and notable private research collections worldwide about 700,000 specimens mostly Louisiana Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.

Needless to say Charlotte and I are quite tired. We published 461 entomological research papers so far and have another 600+ manuscripts in various stages of completion. We truly captured several billions of Louisiana insects over the past 54 years. And we are still running traps today. We will be leaving our lifetime of entomological discoveries and accomplishments to future workers. We consider ourselves lucky to still be present on earth, now in our mid-70s.

Here are jpgs of E. serpentifera (lower), comparisons of E. apta vs E. materna, and E. tyrannus (upper). Yes it appears your determinations are correct.

[vabrou]

I have published several research papers on other members of world Eudocima. Here is one of the rarest. These are the only two known specimens of Eudocima toddi (Zayas, 1965) from Cuba.

[58chevy]

Vernon,
Charlie Swank, who sometimes visits this forum, caught this several years ago near Houston, TX USA. We think it's E. apta. Is that correct?

[Cabintom]

Yes it appears your determinations are correct.

I'll admit, after that wonderful write-up about all the historically confusion surrounding members of the genus, I wasn't expecting to have correct IDs!

[vabrou]

Only Eudocima apta occurs in the New world (North America, Central America, South America). Only Eudocima materna occurs in Africa, India, Asia, China, Japan, Philippines south to Australia and New Zealand.

Here are most, not all of my publications on Eudocima. These are all freely accessible links to them as pdfs.

https://www.academia.edu/35077683/The_E ... _Erebidae_
https://www.academia.edu/33246018/An_ov ... _Calpinae_
https://www.academia.edu/6029501/The_se ... ted_States
https://www.academia.edu/4619744/Eudoci ... es_of_Cuba
https://www.academia.edu/3187644/A_new_ ... idae_Leach
https://www.academia.edu/337792/A_New_U ... lker_1858_

[vabrou]

Yes, Charlies specimen is a female apta.