Röber, 1940; a remarkable butterfly mystery resolved.

Zookeys

Scientific Associate, Department of Life Sciences, the Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.

Published: July 2018

The most distinctive species of , , described from a single specimen said to be from North Sulawesi, Indonesia, has been a great mystery since it was first described by Röber, in 1940. The holotype, originally illustrated in monochrome in the journal , was lost very soon after it was described, almost certainly destroyed during allied bombing of Dresden in the 1940s. No other specimen was known for almost eight decades. We suggest that the type locality (Sulawesi) is incorrect and that the holotype was more likely to have been collected in the Baining Mountains, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. We report the recent discovery of several male from West New Britain Province, and describe and illustrate specimens. A neotype is designated.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6053472PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.774.26458DOI Listing

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