An adult Chlamydastis marianofigueresi, a new species named in honor of the late Peter Michael Mariano Figueres Olsen in recognition of his seminal and germinal support in expanding the rainforested area of ACG.
In a new paper in the journal Insect Mundi, Dr. Eugenie “Jenny” Phillips-Rodríguez, GDFCF’s Associate Science Advisor, details 36 new species of Chlamydastis Meyrick in Costa Rica. The paper includes the DNA barcodes, biology, and descriptions of these small- to moderate-sized moths. Other authors include John W. Brown with the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, as well as Drs. Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs. Of these new species, 32 were light-collected or reared in Área de Conservación Guanacaste by the parataxonomy team. As Dan Janzen says, the paper “so gorgeously shows the three-way integration of place-based taxonomy, tropical integration of DNA barcoding with the past 3 centuries of classical morphology-based taxonomy, and home country talent and drive teasing out its own wild biodiversity for all to appreciate.” This is, he added, Jenny’s second masterpiece, and a third is in the works. The full paper can be viewed here.
The cocoon of C. marianofigueresi