Amaxia apyga(?)
DISTRIBUTION: : C. & S. America.
TYPE LOCALITY: Costa Rica.
BELIZE RECORDS: Greenhills; La Milpa; Pook`s Hill; Las Cuevas.
METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION: the adult is illustrated in colour by Seitz (1925) pl. 45,
fig. e4
and by Hampson (1901) pl. 36, fig. 7. A. pyga Schaus is illustrated in
black and white by Hampson (1901) p. 35, text fig. 27 and Watson (1971)
figs. 5d (adult) and 225c (female genitalia). My specimens appear to match the
colour illustrations of
A. apyga in Hampson (1901) and Seitz (1925) better than the black and
white illustration of A. pyga Schaus in Watson (1971), although they
are a reasonable match to the black and white illustration of A. pyga
in Hampson (1901). A third species, A. perapyga Rothschild, sounds as
though it may resemble these species but I have no illustrations.
NOTES: This identification is far from certain (unfortunately the Type of
pyga is a female and all of my specimens are male, so the possibility
of my specimens being pyga may not be excluded). The identity of
this species from Belize could be checked in the future by
comparison with the genitalia of the Holotypes of A. apyga
and A. perapyga in the collections of the Natural History Museum
in London. To add further confusion to the story Pat Haynes has dissected
a number of specimens of what may be this species from Belize and has
found them to be A. fallaciosa de Toulgoët by comparison with the genitalia
illustrated in de Toulgoet's (1989) preliminary revision of this group
of Aamaxia. It is possible - indeed
probable - that several near-identical species are involved in Belize.
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