A new genus of Castniinae (Lepidoptera Castniidae) with comments on comparative morphology and bionomics of its assigned species.

There are 14 species of Castniinae known from Mexico of which about ten appear to be endemic. Among the latter, we find Synpalamides chelone (Hopffer, 1856), Synpalamides escalantei (J.Y. Miller, 1976) and Castnia estherae J.Y. Miller, 1976. As far as we can tell, no additional specimens of this latter species have been observed until recently, and most of these are reported herein. A description of the male of S. estherae is provided along with a discussion of the comparative morphology of the closely related S. chelone and S. escalantei, and insight into their life histories and bionomics. Additional review of these species along with the other Synpalamides restricted to South America warranted the description of a new genus, Escalantiana J.Y. Miller gen. nov., to which the above species are assigned.