wingspan : 40/42 mm
traditionnally philodora and zamora are deemed to be two subspecies of Catasticta philodora, but there is a doubt, and some consider they are two different species. Maurizio Bollino is presently working on the subject.
for reasons we give in new facts, in this webpage we present them as two different species.
in the Sangay we found Catasticta zamora at Quebrada Cugusha and in the valley of rio Paute.
it comes as no surprise that, one more time, we have a subspecies North of Sangay NP, Catasticta philodora philodora, and another ssp South of the NP, C. ph. zamora, having absolutely no clue as to what happens in the NP itself.
in this particular case we know that some entomologist think that these taxons are not philodora ssp, but in fact two different species - Maurizio Bollino, the Catastictas specialist, is presently working on it.
so we looked for these butterflies in Sangay NP.
up to now we didn't find any in the Baños/Puyo Corridor, although at least one of the two should be flying over there.
but we collected them in the center and on the Southern limit of the NP, at Quebrada Cugusha, 1700 m, at el Retiro, 1900 m, and in the rio Paute valley, 1600/1700 m.
and in this Southern half of Sangay NP we found both taxons, zamora outnumbering philodora.
so we have an area, about 50 km long (North South), where both taxons fly together; for that reason, and also for the visible differences on the HWUN, we would tend to believe they are two different species..
we never found any specimen that would look like a cross breed between the two.
