wingspan : around 40 mm
for reasons we explain on the new facts page,
1 – we consider tringa and humboldtii to be two distinct species,
2 – we keep the name tringa for the butterflies on this page.
3 – and we consider that, in Ecuador, there are no such things as subspecies or forms worth describing, but only one variable species, Perisama tringa, with, probably, a North/South clinal variation.
Perisama tringa is quite common in Sangay NP, at elevations of, generally, 1700 to 1900 meters.
as far as we know Perisama tringa would not be present West of the Andes.
anything, and its opposite, has been said and done about Perisama tringa and humboldtii.
1 – unwarranted changes in taxonomy
- Perisama humboldtii was described in 1844 by Guérin Ménéville,
- Perisama tringa in 1872 by Guénée,
- why was it necessary to make tringa a subspecies of humboldtii, and, it seems, without any valid reason ?
- Stéphane Attal and Alain Crosson du Cormier maintained tringa and humboldtii as two distinct species in their 1996 book,
- and today (2020) an excellent work (to be published soon) by a team from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, led by Anna Zubek, under the scientific supervision of Tomasz Pyrcz, gives a clear picture, thanks to a complete and sensible approach :
- 1 – there are constant morphological differences between the two species,
- 2 – there are constant differences on the genitalia of the two species,
- 3 - the two species belong to two separate clades on a DNA tree.
so it appears that all the above mentioned authors were right, that the recent changes are unjustified, and that we do have two distinct species.
2 – muddled types
- on butterfliesofamerica all types illustrated as humboldtii, including humboldtii humboldtii, seem to be tringa sensu Attal,
- it has been said that Attal and Crosson du Cormier made a confusion between the type of tringa and the type of humboldtii – but who started this rumour ?
- because there is absolutely no doubt, tringa sensu Attal is the same species as the type of tringa in Geneva as evidenced by the bottom pictures, courtesy of of the Museum of Natural History of the City of Geneva.
so, on this site, when we say tringa or humboldtii, we mean sensu Attal, as it should be.
3 - pointless subspecies
- we know Ecuador East of the Andes rather well, and we consider that it is probably impossible to find, in that region, two different
subspecies for any Perisama species, and, on this particular point, we disagree with Attal and Crosson du Cormier,
- when published, the new study by the Jagiellonian University team will develop an interesting hypothesis in this regard.
so, on the Sangay NP website, we have only one slide per Perisama species (except P. lebasii).
hereunder the pictures of the type of Perisama tringa - Guénée, which is kept at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de la Ville de Genève under the MHNG-ENTO-9133 reference.
the red patch under the FW is highly variable, but gets larger going South.
