Subspecies Deudorix epirus despoena Hewitson, 1863

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• Deudorix despoena Hewitson, 1863.
• Deudorix epirus agimar Fruhstorfer, H. 1908. Neue Lycaeniden. Societas Entomologica. Stuttgart 23(5): 37-38 [Date published 1 June, 1908] [38].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown ♂ ♀, Australia (designated in original description; Fruhstorfer also referred to material in the Miskin collection from Cape York, QLD); QM 1♂ 1♀
  Comment: Fruhstorfer in the original description mentioned both sexes and indicated that he had both sexes in his collection, he also referred to a pair in the Miskin collection mentioned by Waterhouse in 1903 in his revision of the Australian Lycaenidae; Waterhouse, G.A. 1936. [unpublished personal manuscript of observations made at the BMNH (Lycaenidae)]. Photocopy located at ANIC, Canberra, ACT. 92 pp. [91] (could not locate type material in BMNH); Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp. [406] (could not locate type material) Waterhouse, G.A. 1903. Notes on Australian Rhopalocera: Lycaenidae. Part III—Revisional. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 28(1): 132–275 [265] (described a pair in the Miskin collection as epirus); Hancock, D.L. 1995. The butterfly types of W. H. Miskin in the Queensland Museum (Lepidoptera). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 38(2): 519–528 [523] (did not refer to this species); Edwards, E.D., Newland, J. & Regan, L. 2001. Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea. In Wells, A. & Houston, W.W.K. Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 31.6. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia. x 615 pp. (Waterhouse's (1903) description was referred to (except that Fruhstorfer gave the wrong reference) when agimar was described and so Miskin's pair are syntypes).

  Type locality references:

  Waterhouse, G.A. 1903. Notes on Australian Rhopalocera: Lycaenidae. Part III—Revisional. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 28(1): 132-275, pls 1-3; Waterhouse, G.A. 1936. [unpublished personal manuscript of observations made at the BMNH (Lycaenidae)]. Photocopy located at ANIC, Canberra, ACT. 92 pp.; Hancock, D.L. 1995. The butterfly types of W. H. Miskin in the Queensland Museum (Lepidoptera). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 38(2): 519-528; Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp.; Edwards, E.D., Newland, J. & Regan, L. 2001. Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea. In Wells, A. & Houston, W.W.K. Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 31.6. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia. x 615 pp.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Tennent, W.J., Müller, C.J. & Rawlins, A. 2010. A new Deudorix from Irian Jaya (West Papua), Indonesia (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), with notes on Deudorix epirus Felder, 1860. Australian Entomologist 37: 33–43

Introduction

Tennent et al. (2010) recently reviewed the subspecific taxonomy of Deudorix epirus C. Felder, 1860, and treated the subspecies D. epirus agimar Fruhstorfer, 1908, from the Torres Strait Islands, mainland northern Queensland and Papua New Guinea as a junior synonym of D. epirus despoena Hewitson, 1863. The distribution of D. epirus despoena was considered to occur from Aru, Waigeo, through mainland New Guinea, including some outlying islands, the Torres Strait islands to mainland north-eastern Australia (Tennent et al. 2010).

Ecological Descriptors

Larva: herbivore (associated flora: Harpullia ramiflora Radlk. [SAPINDACEAE]).

General References

Common, I.F.B. & Waterhouse, D.F. 1981. Butterflies of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xiv 682 pp. 49 pls.

De Baar, M. & Johnson, S.J. 1996. Notes on the foodplant of Deudorix epirus agimar Fruhstorfer (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Australian Entomologist 23: 36

Parsons, M.J. 1998. The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea; their systematics and biology. San Diego : Academic Press 736 pp.

Tennent, W.J., Müller, C.J. & Rawlins, A. 2010. A new Deudorix from Irian Jaya (West Papua), Indonesia (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), with notes on Deudorix epirus Felder, 1860. Australian Entomologist 37: 33–43

Waterhouse, G.A. & Lyell, G. 1914. The Butterflies of Australia: a monograph of the Australian Rhopalocera introducing a complete scheme of structural classification, and giving descriptions and illustrations of all the butterflies found in Australia, including a number now recorded for the first time. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 239 pp. 38 pls + 3 unnumbered colour pls. [Date published 25 July 1914]

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