Hemileuca maia, (Drury, 1773) (Drury, 1773)

Pavulaan, Harry, 2020, Designation of neotype of Hemileuca maia (Drury, 1773) and refinement of its type locality (Bombycoidea, Saturniidae, Hemileucinae), The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 8 (4), pp. 1-12 : 8-9

NEOTYPE DESIGNATION

Since none of the known historic specimens (despite links to Drury and his peers) clearly satisfy the phenotypic characters evident in the illustrated specimen ( Drury, 1773), a neotype is proposed here to objectively define nominotypical Hemileuca maia ( Phalaena Bombyx Maia ) with a typical male, representative of the Long Island Pine Barrens population. I select a specimen from the Edgewood Pine Barrens (Fig. 10). The Hunterian Museum specimens of proserpina, which are closer matches to the specimen illustrated in Drury (1773), do not appear to be of the nominotypical phenotype of maia . A specimen from the Long Island Pine Barrens region would best represent the species from the immediate

New York (city) region, which is likely the geographical origin of the specimen illustrated in Drury (1773). The Long Island population is essentially a Pine Barrens isolate. The next nearest populations of maia occur in southeastern New England. Other populations from around Albany, N.Y. and in the New Jersey Pine Barrens region differ phenotypically by having more opaque, darker wings (Pavulaan, in press).

The proposed neotype, a male ( Fig. 10 ), bears a plain white printed label [ Hemileuca maia / October 21, 2017 / Long Island Avenue / north of Deer Park train station / Edgewood, New York. Collected by Harry Pavulaan] and a red printed label [NEOTYPE / Phalaena Bombyx Maia / Drury (1773) / Designated by / Harry Pavulaan 2020]. The neotype is deposited in the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity, Gainesville, Florida .

TYPE LOCALITY

The location of the defined type locality of the neotype of Hemileuca maia is just outside the east edge of the Scrub Oak Plains which lie within the Edgewood Oak Brush Plains Preserve, between Deer Park and Brentwood, Long Island, New York ( Fig. 11 ). Industrial growth has destroyed most of the native forest cover of the area in the image with only patches of habitat remaining in some areas outside of the Preserve. This site, in what little remains of the historic hamlet of Edgewood, is directly north of the Long Island Railroad s Deer Park station along Long Island Avenue. The type locality site will very likely be developed shortly after publication of this paper, though there is a thriving population of Buck Moths in the Scrub Oak Plains within the Preserve. A portion of the Scrub Oak habitat, which is visible in the image below ( Fig. 12 ), was once part of the continuous Long Island Pitch Pine Barrens and Scrub Oak Plains, as recently as the mid-1960 s.

Figures

Fig. 10. Proposed neotype of Phalaena Bombyx Maia Drury (1773).

Fig. 11. Location of the defined type locality of the neotype of Hemileuca maia beyond the east edge of the Scrub Oak Plains within the Edgewood Oak Brush Plains Preserve between Deer Park and Brentwood, Long Island, New York.

Fig. 12. Typical view of Scrub Oak Plains habitat within the Edgewood Oak Brush Plains Preserve, immediately west of the proposed type locality. This is typical habitat for H. maia on Long Island. The Scrub Oak (Q. ilicifolia) canopy in the foreground is the primary component of the Scrub Oak Plains and is approximately 5 ft. in height. Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) towers above the Oaks in the background. [Photo: 10/21/2017]