''Catasticta sibyllae'' is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

in the family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family (biology), family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from Afrotropical realm, tropical Africa and Indomalayan realm, tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern ...

. It is only known from two sites in western Panama and is represented by a single male specimen from each site. It was first described by Shinichi Nakahara, Pablo Sebastián Padrón, and John R. MacDonald in 2018. The first specimen was caught in the 1980s and stowed in a drawer in the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

. Its wings are black with two rows of cream-colored spots near the edges. It differs from other '' Catasticta'' species in the lack of markings on the medial surfaces of its black forewings and hindwings. According to DNA analysis, it is most closely related to '' Catasticta lisa'' Baumann & Reissinger, 1969, which has a broad white band on the upper surfaces of the wings. The two specimens of ''C. sibyllae'' had forewing lengths of respectively. The name honors

Maria Sibylla Merian Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German Entomology, entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to document observations about insects directly. Merian was a desce ...

, a 17th-century European naturalist and entomologist who studied butterflies in South America.

References

External links

New Butterfly Named for Pioneering 17th-Century Entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian
{{Taxonbar, from=Q59566605 Pierini Butterflies described in 2018 Butterflies of Central America Endemic fauna of Panama