Timochares trifasciata (Hewitson, 1868)

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2024, New taxa of butterflies supported by genomic analysis, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 12 (3), pp. 1-63 : 37

Timochares trifasciata form obscurior Draudt, 1923 is an unavailable name

The original description of Timochares trifasciata form obscurior Draudt, 1923 (type locality in Bolivia: Rio Zongo ) states: “The ground-colour is variable, and dark (= obscurior form. nov.) … and light forms fly together at the same places” (Draudt 1923). According to the Glossary of the ICZN Code (1999), an infrasubspecific name is “a name applied to an infrasubspecific entity.” The infrasubspecific entity is defined in part as “specimen(s) within a species differing from other specimens in consequence of intrapopulational variability (e.g. … variants of … polymorphism).” Because the statement “dark … and light forms fly together at the same places” as a qualification of variable ground color refers to “variants of … polymorphism” if these “forms” are conspecific, and in this case, both are Timochares trifasciata according to Draudt (1923), Timochares trifasciata form obscurior is an infrasubspecific entity, and the name applied to it is infrasubspecific. The name obscurior was proposed as infrasubspecific and was not adopted (per ICZN Code glossary: “adopt, v. To use an unavailable name as the valid name of a taxon in a way which establishes it as a new name with its own authorship and date”) as the valid name for a species or a subspecies before 1985 (Art. 45.6.4) (Evans 1953). Therefore, we conclude that the name Timochares trifasciata form obscurior Draudt, 1923 is unavailable according to the ICZN Code article 45.6. For those who accept this conclusion, this name does not have formal type specimens, and its “ lectotype ” is designated above instead of the invalid “ lectotype ” (not a syntype) designated by Mielke (1993).