Taxonomic overview of the greater fritillary genus Speyeria Scudder and the atlantis - hesperis species complexes, with species accounts, type images, and relevant literature (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Authors

James C. Dunford, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of FloridaFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

9-25-2009

Comments

Published in Insecta Mundi 0090: 1-74. Published in 2009 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P. O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 U.S.A. http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/

Abstract

A taxonomic overview for the fritillary genus Speyeria Scudder (= Argynnis Fabricius) and its placement within the Heliconiinae (Nymphalidae) is presented. Taxonomic accounts, type images, and relevant literature for the 25 subspecies within the Speyeria atlantis (Edwards) and Speyeria hesperis (Edwards) complexes and the 16 nominate Speyeria species are included. Errors in nomenclature are identified, taxonomic, life history, and distributional information are updated, and type locality information is discussed. Images of primary type specimens for all 16 Speyeria species and the 25 subspecies in the atlantis - hesperis complexes appear together in color here for the first time. One new combination of a species-subspecies is created: Speyeria hesperis hanseni Emmel, Emmel, and Matoon, 1998, new combination, which was previously Speyeria atlantis hanseni Emmel, Emmel, and Matoon.