Species Pseudalmenus barringtonensis (Waterhouse, 1928)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Pseudalmenus chlorinda barringtonensis Waterhouse, G.A. 1928. Notes on Australian Lycaenidae. Part VI. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 53: 401-412, pl. 25 [412 pl. 25 fig. 5].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM K199026 ♂, Edwards Hut, Barrington Tops, NSW
  Comment: Waterhouse in the original description stated that he had a single male; Peters, J.V. 1971. A Catalogue of the Type Specimens of the Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea (Lepidoptera) in the Australian Museum. Greenwich, NSW : Australian Entomological Press 36 pp. [24] (referred to a holotype and gave type information). Braby and Eastwood (2019) examined and illustrated the ‘holotype’ male (registration No. KL20749) of P. barringtonensis in the Australian Museum showed that it is a fake, although the data label is genuine; the specimen is actually P. chlorinda chloris Waterhouse & Lyell, 1914 that has been modified with red paint to resemble P. barringtonensis. The true holotype is currently missing, but a specimen in the Australian Museum (registration No. K199026) that is part of the Colin W. Wyatt Theft Collection with a fictitious label is almost certainly the true holotype of P. barringtonensis.

  Type locality references:

  Peters, J.V. 1971. A Catalogue of the Type Specimens of the Hesperioidea and Papilionoidea (Lepidoptera) in the Australian Museum. Greenwich, NSW : Australian Entomological Press 36 pp.; Braby, M.F. & Eastwood, R.G. 2019. Revised taxonomic status of Pseudalmenus barringtonensis Waterhouse, 1928 stat. rev. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): uncovering Australia’s greatest taxonomic fraud. Invertebrate Systematics 33: 530-543 [Date published 31 May 2019].

  Secondary source:

   Braby, M.F. & Eastwood, R.G. 2019. Revised taxonomic status of Pseudalmenus barringtonensis Waterhouse, 1928 stat. rev. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): uncovering Australia’s greatest taxonomic fraud. Invertebrate Systematics 33: 530-543 [Date published 31 May 2019].

 

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Braby, M.F. & Eastwood, R.G. 2019. Revised taxonomic status of Pseudalmenus barringtonensis Waterhouse, 1928 stat. rev. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): uncovering Australia’s greatest taxonomic fraud. Invertebrate Systematics 33: 530-543 [Date published 31 May 2019]

 

Introduction

Braby and Eastwood (2019) revised the taxonomy of Pseudalmenus, and concluded that there are two species, namely, P. chlorinda (Blanchard, 1848) from Tasmania and the mainland of south-eastern Australia and P. barringtonensis Waterhouse, 1928 stat. rev., which is allopatric and narrowly restricted to montane areas in northern New South Wales, based on evidence from adult phenotype (colour pattern), immature stages (final instar larva) and ecology (ant specificity) (total of 10 unique character states) as well as limited genetic data (mitochondrial COI).
The larval food plants include Acacia irrorata, A.dealbata and A. melanoxylon.

 

Distribution

States

New South Wales

Extra Distribution Information

Occurs from Mt McKenzie near Tenterfield to Ebor, Point Lookout and Barrington Tops, NSW.

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NSW: NSW North Coast (NNC), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: SE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

Larva: attendant ants, herbivore.

 

General References

Braby, M.F. & Eastwood, R.G. 2019. Revised taxonomic status of Pseudalmenus barringtonensis Waterhouse, 1928 stat. rev. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): uncovering Australia’s greatest taxonomic fraud. Invertebrate Systematics 33: 530-543 [Date published 31 May 2019]

Burns, A.N. 1948. New geographical races of Australian butterflies. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 15: 86-102 pls 3-8 figs 1-5 [issued 1948, dated 1947] [97] (biology)

Common, I.F.B. & Waterhouse, D.F. 1981. Butterflies of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xiv 682 pp. 49 pls. [513]

Waterhouse, G.A. 1932. What Butterfly is That? A Guide to the Butterflies of Australia. Illustrated by Neville Cayley. Sydney : Angus & Robertson 291 pp. 34 pls. [Date published 15/Dec/1932] [194]

 

Common Name References

Braby, M.F. & Eastwood, R.G. 2019. Revised taxonomic status of Pseudalmenus barringtonensis Waterhouse, 1928 stat. rev. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): uncovering Australia’s greatest taxonomic fraud. Invertebrate Systematics 33: 530-543 [Date published 31 May 2019] (Flame Hairstreak)

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
04-Jun-2020	PAPILIONOIDEA	22-Apr-2020	MODIFIED	Dr Michael Braby
05-Mar-2013		05-Mar-2013	MODIFIED
30-Mar-2012		30-Mar-2012	MODIFIED
28-Mar-2012		28-Mar-2012	MODIFIED
		12-Feb-2010	(import)