Post by wollastoni on Dec 18, 2014 21:33:59 GMT
This wonderful day-flying moth is Argyrolepidia palaea, an Agaristinae, Noctuidae.
I caught it in August 2009 in the Pass Valley, on km48 after Wamena (West Papua), about 1800 m altitude.
I spread it one year after my trip (I had so many Delias to spread before...).
Once spread, I asked my friends who know Papua if they could identify it ... nobody could.
Then I contacted Rob de Vos and Henk van Mastrigt (worldwide specialists of Papuan lepidoptera) and they had never seen it and thought it was a new species. We have contacted many other specialists... nobody knew it.
Thus I sent the specimen to Leiden Museum in Holland for them to write the new description.
But we then learnt from the British Museum that it has already been described in 1905 by Rothschild & Jordan as Argyrolepidia palaea from one single series, caught in PNG by the great explorer AS Meek. This series is now stored in the British Museum.
So it was a nice adventure but unfortunately for me not a new species !
It was only the second time this rare day-flying moth has been caught, one century after Meek, and the first record for West Papua.
I have donated my specimen to Paris MNHN to complete their Agaristinae collection.
For the first time in my life, I regret Meek's discoveries !
Rob de Vos has written a scientific article about this specimen and other Agaristinae discoveries in Sugapa 2013, 77 (4) April - June 2013:
Three new Agaristinae species and the first record of Argyrolepidia palaea from Papua, Indonesia (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Agaristinae)
It is also pictured on the Papua Insect Foundation website : www.papua-insects.nl/insect%20orders/Lepidoptera/Noctuidae/Agaristinae/Argyrolepidia/Argyrolepidia%20palaea.htm