Probole. This
happens when we can't automatically assign an identification to one of the
output taxa.
Review identifications of Probole amicaria 502385
Taxonomic Split 136686
(Committed on 2024-01-10)
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Comments
The taxonomy of the genus is unresolved and until new taxonomic information is published, it remains in limbo. It's not really feasable to reliably ID any to speciesl level at this point, yet there are almost certainly mutiple species.
In the new checklist we maintained the three previously recognized species because a) the results of Tomon (2007) were never published so the taxonomic changes proposed therein should not be treated as valid (and iNat should not have lumped all three species under amicaria), and b) there is enough evidence from geographically focused studies to indicate that there are probably at least two species (as discssued in Handfield's "Papillons du Quebec" and in our "Checklist of Alberta Lepidoptera").
Handfield, L. 1999. Le guide des papillons du Québec, version scientifique. Broquet, Boucherville. 982
pages.
Pohl GR, Anweiler GG, Schmidt BC, Kondla NG. 2010. An annotated list of the Lepidoptera of Alberta, Canada. ZooKeys 38: 1-549.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.38.383
@neoarctia Thanks for clarifying the current status of Probole taxonomy. In iNaturalist's taxonomy, the two species that were made synonyms of P. amicaria need to be reinstated as species taxa. And identifications of P. amicaria need to be upranked to the genus. I've revised the text of this taxon change. Is there anything else you'd suggest to say or do before I commit this change? Thanks!
That looks good, thanks Tim. Note the spelling of Tomon, rather than Timon.
Thanks, I've fixed my typo on Tomon.
@neoarctia @hughmcguinness What's your advice for placing Probole records to the 3 species you list in the 2023 checklist? Are ranges known well enough that some records in regions with only one species could be placed automatically by range alone without manual reidentification of many of the records? Is the best way to identify photo records of the 3 species the way Forbes presents in his Lepidoptera of NY & Neighboring States Part II p. 96, using forewing patterns?