Zilli Alberto, Grishin Nick V
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, U.K.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Syst Entomol. 2019 Apr;44(2):384-395. doi: 10.1111/syen.12330. Epub 2018 Nov 3.
Many insect species named by the Danish entomologist J.C. Fabricius remain enigmatic due to loss of the original type specimens, sketchy descriptions and lack of illustrations, but even some well-illustrated taxa remain unrecognized. This is the case for , a 'butterfly' illustrated by W.J. Jones, the identity of which has puzzled experts for 225 years. Here we argue that the description and illustrations of this species are a perfect fit to a colourful moth later described by F. Walker as . Furthermore, we present evidence that Walker unwittingly based his name on the same specimen as Fabricius, and that this is the only known example of this species. An extraordinary sequence of misconceptions led the geographic origin of this specimen to become thoroughly confused, so that it is currently unknown where on Earth this species may occur (although a substantial body of evidence points to West Africa) and if it is even still extant.
丹麦昆虫学家J.C. 法布尔命名的许多昆虫物种，由于原始模式标本丢失、描述简略且缺乏插图，至今仍不为人所知，但即便一些有精美插图的分类单元也仍未得到确认。W.J. 琼斯所绘的一种“蝴蝶”就是如此，其身份已困扰专家达225年之久。在此我们认为，该物种的描述和插图与后来F. 沃克描述为 的一种色彩斑斓的蛾子完全相符。此外，我们还提供证据表明，沃克无意中将他的命名基于与法布尔相同的标本，而且这是该物种唯一已知的实例。一系列离奇的误解导致这个标本的地理起源彻底混淆，以至于目前尚不清楚该物种可能出现在地球上的何处（尽管大量证据指向西非），甚至也不确定它是否仍然存在。
