Maligayang pagdating sa bagong taon, at halos isang buong taon ng pag-blog! Ito ay kamangha-manghang kung paano mabilis ang oras nagsakay sa pamamagitan ng, ngunit muli palaging ginagawa nito. Habang ikaw ay malamang napansin Disyembre naka-out na maging ang aking pinakamahina buwan sa pag-post na may napakalaki 2 post. Paglutas: higit pa sa pag-post!
Ngayon Hindi ko pa nagsimula mag-blog tungkol sa musika (for those who get the Wilco reference), but I am taking us back to the ghost moth of previous posts.
Progress has been made and unfortunately it is pointing toward a direction I was not particularly hoping for. As it turns out my moth may not be new after all! I finally managed to track down two specimens of a species known from the same general vicinity as my specimen above. Gazoryctra lemberti is known from the central Sierra Nevada near Yosemite but has been so rarely collected I can only find 5 specimens known to science in the literature. Two additional specimens are housed at the Field Museum in Chicago (which was totally unknown to me, and nearly knocked me off my feet when I found them during a random drawer sweep!). Nang makita ko ang gamu-gamo na ito ay alam ko na ang aking nakikita – ang aking gamu-gamo mula sa Sierra!
Ang dalawang mga specimen ng Field Museum ay medyo espesyal dahil ang mga ito ay mula sa koleksyon ni Harrison G. Dyar, 1894. (Magbasa pa tungkol sa nakatutuwang sira-sirang lepidopterist na ito sa isang lumang post ng Bug Girl). Sa label ng data ay may maliit na tag na nagsasaad ng publikasyon: Tiningnan ko ito – G. lemberti OD (.pdf).
Hmmm medyo magandang pagkakataon iyon, 2 mga specimen na nakolekta sa eksaktong lokalidad na ito sa eksaktong taon… maghintay, ito ay marahil ang orihinal na uri ng serye! Ano ang mga pagkakataon na kilala ang isang gamu-gamo 5 ang mga specimen ay magkakaroon isa pa dalawang specimen mula sa parehong petsa sa isa pang koleksyon? Marami pang gawaing gagawin, ngunit ito ay palaging maganda upang mahanap ang isang “nawala” uri.
Ngunit ang ibig sabihin nito ay malamang na ang bug sa itaas Gazoryctra lemberti, at hindi isang bagong species pagkatapos ng lahat. Natutuwa akong hindi ako nagsimula ng masyadong maraming gawain tungkol dito…
Very interesting connection with the Field Museum specimens. If the data match the original publication as collected by Lambert – then it seems you have found the original type series. If this is fairly certain, they all you need to do is designate a lectotype. If there is a question about whether the Field Museum specimens were the original types series, then pick one of them to serve as a Neotype.
The data matches to “Lyell fork of the Tuolumne River”. I’ve asked Alma at the Smithsonian to check on their “uri” of this species, but there is only one specimen and no data given online.
The FMNH specimens have more precise data that is dated to “1894”, but there is no specific date – just a hand written tag “11077” and 11091″. Since there are only a handful of specimens known, it would be uncanny that two other specimens were collected at this location in 1894 yet somehow evaded the publication.
Still exciting to have such a rare specimen! Was it in one of your light traps?