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Hypercompe is a genus that is easy to identify at genus level because of their thorax and wing rings. But it can be hard to identify Hypercompe at species level. In fact, Inaturalist brazilian observations of Hypercompe have around 10% at research grade level of identification,

Hypercompe kinkelini was described by Burmeister, 1880. I was not able to find the original description but I found a description of the species by Hampson, 1901 (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid03brituoft/page/373/mode/1up?view=theater) and a plate (https://archive.org/details/tudesdentomolo06ober/page/n156/mode/1up?view=theater).

To unveil how to identify the species of Hypercompe in the brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul I started studying what species is know to occur in that state. Ferro & Teston, 2009 published a list of the Arctiinae species found in Rio Grande do Sul and 8 Hypercompe species are listed: H. abdominalis, H. brasiliensis, H. cunigunda, H. detecta, H. heterogena, H. indecisa, H. kinkelini and H. orsa.

Based on Hampson description I found an easy character: pinkish white color on thorax and legs. This character is unique for Hypercompe kinkelini at least when compared with the others species found in Rio Grande do Sul.

This was the first identification on the site Inaturalist and the first known photograph of living specimens for the species Hypercompe kinkelini: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93317841. After search the state of Rio grande do Sul I expand the search in the neighborhood and found a total of 60 observations of Hypercompe kinkelini distributed in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and São Paulo, and the argentinian provinces of Misiones, Chaco and Buenos Aires.

Bibliography:

Ferro & Teston, 2009. Composição de espécies de Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) no sul do Brasil: relação entre tipos de vegetação e entre a configuração espacial do hábitat. Revista Brasileira de entomologia 53 (2): 278-286.

Eucereon pallada was first described by Druce 1906: https://archive.org/details/s7annalsmagazine18londuoft/page/80/mode/1up?view=theater . Hampson, 1914 also described the species: https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid01brit/page/331/mode/1up?view=theater and made a plate (fig. 30): https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid12brit/page/n85/mode/2up?view=theater . Travasso 1961 transferred the species to genus Euceriodes.

Recently I made an Inaturalist site prospection to find the distributional area of Euceriodes pallada: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/regisrafael/77465-distributional-area-of-euceriodes-pallada-lepidoptera-erebidae. This prospection doesn't included Bolivia in the search.

While searching Bolivia observations on Inaturalist site for the species Leucanopsis leucanina I found one observation of Euceriodes pallada: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149635280.

This observation is far away from previous records of the species and is the first record for Bolivia. If the distribution of the species are continuos, Paraguay and the brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul have a high chance of occurence for the species Euceriodes pallada.

Bibliography:

Travassos, L. (1961) Contribuição ao conhecimento das espécies incluidas no gênero Eucereon (Lepidoptera-Arctiidae). Atas de Sociedade de Biologia do Rio de Janeiro, 5 (3), 9–10.

Euthyone celenna was first described by Schaus, 1892 with type locality Rio de Janeiro: https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofgen92scie/page/283/mode/1up?view=theater .

In addition to Rio de Janeiro, Euthyone celenna is know to occur in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, Bahia and Alagoas (Ferro, 2007).

To uncover the distributional area of Euthyone celenna I compared the figure of Hampson, 1900 (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid2brituoft/page/347/mode/1up?view=theater) with Arctiinae pictures on the site Inaturalis from the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Distrito Federal, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, Piauí and Maranhão, and also Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

It was found 21 pictures that matched Hampson figure in the following brazilian states: Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia.

All the brazilian states were Euthyone celenna was found in this work was also previously found by Ferro, 2007.

Bibliography:

Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Diversidade de mariposas Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) do cerrado. 2007. Tese (doutorado) - Curso de ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.

One of the main purposes of Inaturalist is know where the species occur. This information can help further scientific works as endangered evaluation, ecological parameters and identifications (It's easier and faster identify an organism comparing them with the species that is know to occur in the area or neighborhood) for example.

Eucereon pallada was first described by Druce 1906: https://archive.org/details/s7annalsmagazine18londuoft/page/80/mode/1up?view=theater . Hampson, 1914 also described the species: https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid01brit/page/331/mode/1up?view=theater and made a plate (fig. 30): https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid12brit/page/n85/mode/2up?view=theater . Travasso 1961 transferred the species to genus Euceriodes.

To uncover the distributional area of Euceriodes pallada I compared the Hampson's plate with Arctiinae pictures on the site Inaturalis from Rio Grande do Sul state, where this species is know to occur (Ferro & Teston 2009). After recognizing one picture as Euceriodes pallada in Rio Grande do Sul ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/111551411 ) I expanded the search for the brazilian states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul. Further search was done in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Eucereon pallada was found in the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and São Paulo. Also, the species was found in the argentinian province of Missiones. The specimens was often misidentified as Eucereon genus. Some variation in shape and lenght of the forewing spots was found. Furthermore, two variation in forewing color was found, whitish: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146778966 and greyish: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148963849 .

The species Euceriodes pallada was previously known to occur in the brazilian states of Paraná (Druce, 1906 and Hampson, 1914) and Rio Grande do Sul (Ferro & Teston 2009). This work can be the first known evidence for the states of Santa Catarina (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65832190) and São Paulo (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/153374088 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74928903), and in Argentina (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107150830 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/73006580 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1775552).

Here I treated the variation in the forewing spots as populational variation or lost scales. For the color variation in the forewing I propose sexual dimorphism hypotesis to be tested.

Bibliography:

Ferro & Teston, 2009. Composição de espécies de Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) no sul do Brasil: relação entre tipos de vegetação e entre a configuração espacial do hábitat. Revista Brasileira de entomologia 53 (2): 278-286.

Travassos, L. (1961) Contribuição ao conhecimento das espécies incluidas no gênero Eucereon (Lepidoptera-Arctiidae). Atas de Sociedade de Biologia do Rio de Janeiro, 5 (3), 9–10.

Eucereon chalcodon was first described by Druce, 1893, type locality Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro: https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofgen93scie/page/287/mode/1up?view=theater . Druce also provided a plate (Fig 6): https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.229851/page/n327/mode/2up .

Eucereon compositum was first described by Draudt, 1915. He don't provided a locality: https://archive.org/details/diegrossschmette06seit/page/178/mode/1up?view=theater , but he provided a plate (Line D): https://archive.org/details/diegrossschmette06seit_0/page/25/mode/1up?view=theater .

Around 90 brazilian Inaturalist site observations are identified as Eucereon compositum. Also others sites have brazilian specimens identified as Eucereon compositum: https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/738673361 , https://www.insetologia.com.br/2016/12/lagartas-de-sao-paulo.html?m=1 , https://www.flickr.com/photos/37957896@N03/5236061918 . However, brazilian arctiinea diversity papers don't found any specimens of Eucereon compositum (Ferro, 2007; Ferro & Teston 2009; Nascimento et. al., 2016). How it's possible a species be so common in brazilian internet images but absent in scientific works?

To answer this question I looked closer to the images and compared with Druce and Draudt plates. Also, I used images from BoldSystems site: https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=392426 , https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=977547 .

Two clearly diferences was found: Eucereon chalcodon have red abdomen versus yellow/orange in Eucereon compositum; a large white spot in the thorax of E. chalcodon that don't have in E. compositum.

All specimens from Brazil that dorsal view abdmomen can be seeing showed a red abdomen, examples: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/45281893 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36716919 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/36716919 .

I concluded that all brazilian specimens identified as Eucereon compositum are, in fact, Eucereon chalcodon or another related species.

Bibliography:

Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Diversidade de mariposas Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) do cerrado. 2007. Tese (doutorado) - Curso de ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.

Ferro & Teston, 2009. Composição de espécies de Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) no sul do Brasil: relação entre tipos de vegetação e entre a configuração espacial do hábitat. Revista Brasileira de entomologia 53 (2): 278-286.

Nascimento, Milena de Souza; Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi; Monteiro, Ricardo Ferreira. 2016. Arctiinae (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Biota Neotropica. 16 (2): e20150112.

Theages hoffmani is a beautiful moth described first by Travassos in 1962. A recent master dissertation reviewed the genus Theages (Araujo, 2018). It was provided a description, key and picture of holotype of Thaeges hoffmani in dissertation. Also, a geographic distribution was provided and this species was found in the brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Paraná. This species can be diferentiated from anothers species in this genus by presence of a predominant ocher color on forewing and no orange dots in head.

I used dissertation information to prospect arctiinae observations on Inaturalist searching for Theages species. The search was conducted in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

I could not found any Theages hoffmani in Brazil but surprisingly I could found two pictures in Martín Garcia island in the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. This two pictures was taken by diferent observers 3 years apart each observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/6346999 ; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/72935916.

It's remarkable how it was found twice in an island of just 184 ha and nowhere else. It's also remarkable that it's far away from the known occurrence area and it's first evidence of the presence of this species in Argentina. Finally, it's the first known photographs of living specimens of Theages hoffmani.

Bibliography:

Araujo, Elias da Costa . Taxonomia e análise cladística de Theages Walker, 1855 (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Arctiini, Ctenuchina). 2018. Dissertação (mestrado) - Curso de Sistemática, Taxonomia Animal e Biodiversidade. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2018.

One of my personal goals on Inaturalist is photograph and publish very rare taxa. For this purpose I defined very rare the taxa that have less than 10 observations on Inaturalist.

A good target for very rare observation is a mega diverse group, hard to find, arouse little interrest of people, need equipment to observe, hard to photograph and restricted occurrence area. My favorites groups are Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Angiospermae and Actinopterygii. I use my smartphone and a macro lens attached to photograph.

One day before christmas I visited my father-in-law and did a walk around. It's one of my favorite spot in the world to photograph biodiversity because it's very close to well forested areas. I was attracted to a spot with high lepidoptera activity. I saw a medium to large beetle moving in a Poacea. Fast enough I took some pictures but was dissapointed that the beetle was very active moving and eventually flyed away. When I saw the pictures at computer I first decided to delete because of the quality of images. Then I realized that I had an ok shot of dorsal view, another of torax plus head and one of the legs. I decided publish this 3 pictures.

When Julien Touroult identified as genus Corallancyla I get very happy by my decision of not delete the pictures and publish. It was the first identified observation of this genus in Inaturalist. Today I searched the genus in google and found a site with pictures of museum specimens including the holotype. Comparing my pictures and occurrence area information I concluded that It's Corallancyla neotropica species. http://bezbycids.com/byciddb/wdetails.asp?id=3807&w=n.

I'm feeling great! Please, come to Brazil, there's a lot of very rare species waiting to be photographed.

Cosmosoma centralis and Cosmosoma ada species resemblance identified on Inaturalist site is notorious. There are 27 identifications as Cosmosoma centralis and 12 as Cosmosoma ada in sympathric distribution in Brazil. However, brazilian Arctiinae diversity studies shows only Cosmosoma centralis occuring in this area (Ferro, 2007; Ferro & Teston 2009; Nascimento et. al., 2016).

Some hypothesis have been raised for this problem:

• Some observations of Cosmosoma centralis was misidentified as Cosmosoma ada in Brazil;
• Cosmosoma centralis and Cosmosoma ada are synonyms;
• Cosmosoma ada occur in Brazil and was not found or correct identified on previous biodiversity studies.

Walker described the new species Glaucopis centralis in 1854 for Rio de Janeiro locality, making a text description: https://archive.org/details/listofspecimens13brit/page/171/mode/1up. Herrich-Schäffer renamed the species in 1858 writing "Von den zahlreichen, mit Gattungsnamen belegten Gruppen Walkers glaube ich wegen ihrer Haltlosigkeit keine Notiz nehmen zu dürfen." It's an hard translation without context and the Google Translate tool translated has follow: "I believe because of the numerous groups of Walker with generic names not to be allowed to take any notice of their instability." This frase followed a list of Glaucopis species that included "ada", credit to herself, fig. 297 (a plate at same book) and reference to Walker species "centralis": https://archive.org/details/sammlungneuerode01herr/page/72/mode/2up. In 1898, Hampson transferred Glaucopis centralis to the genus Cosmosoma: https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid01brituoft/page/243/mode/1up?view=theater.

I concluded that Herrich-Schäffer renamed Glaucopis centralis as Glaucopis ada because of instability of Walker's generic names. This argument are not valid at modern taxonomy and, therefore, the name Cosmosoma centralis are valid and Cosmosoma ada is a synonym junior.

Bibliography:

Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Diversidade de mariposas Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) do cerrado. 2007. Tese (doutorado) - Curso de ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.

Ferro & Teston, 2009. Composição de espécies de Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) no sul do Brasil: relação entre tipos de vegetação e entre a configuração espacial do hábitat. Revista Brasileira de entomologia 53 (2): 278-286.

Nascimento, Milena de Souza; Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi; Monteiro, Ricardo Ferreira. 2016. Arctiinae (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Biota Neotropica. 16 (2): e20150112.

Eucereon ladas is a species described by Schaus, 1892 with habitat in Rio de Janeiro (state or municipality isn't clear in the given description). In the same work it was also provided a drawing that can be found here: https://archive.org/details/americanlepidopt00scha/page/n32/mode/1up?view=theater.

This drawing was initially compared with Inaturalist pictures filtered by Eucereon genus. Another comparison of pictures was done filtered by Arctiinae subfamily and subtribe as the lowest rank. The following areas was prospected with both filters: the brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul and Distrito Federal; the argentinian provinces of Misiones and Corrientes; and Paraguay and Uruguay countries. Further comparison with suspected Eucereon ladas Inaturalist pictures was done with the BOLD Systems site: https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=645512.

A bibliographic search was done for the Eucereon ladas distributional area. Ferro, 2007 identified the species in Minas Gerais (Santa Bárbara) and São Paulo (Araras) states. The same work provided information of further know occurence areas of Eucereon ladas in the brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul but don't provided the municipalities where they was found. Ferro & Teston, 2009 (Rio Grande do Sul); Orlandin et al., 2016 and Silva & Silva, 2014 (Santa Catarina) and Nascimento et. al., 2016 (Rio de Janeiro) provided aditional data. The Paraná data was obtained by BOLDSystems public data: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=LEMMZ052-10.

The coordinates data from Inaturalist (7 places) and bibliography (19 places) was ploted in a map using SimpleMappr site and resulted in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Map with know locations of specimens of Eucereon ladas.

Eucereon ladas was found only in brazilian territory and can be endemic of Brazil. But the proximity with the argentinian province of Misiones of some occurrence places suggest caution and more data from that province will be necessary to confirm the brazilian endemism.

Bibliography:

Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Diversidade de mariposas Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) do cerrado. 2007. Tese (doutorado) - Curso de ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2007.

Ferro & Teston, 2009. Composição de espécies de Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) no sul do Brasil: relação entre tipos de vegetação e entre a configuração espacial do hábitat. Revista Brasileira de entomologia 53 (2): 278-286.

Nascimento, Milena de Souza; Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi; Monteiro, Ricardo Ferreira. 2016. Arctiinae (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Biota Neotropica. 16 (2): e20150112.

Orlandin, Elton; Favretto, Mario Arthur; Piovesan, Monica; dos Santos, Emili Bortolon. Borboletas e Mariposas de Santa Catarina: uma introdução. Campos Novos: Mario Arthur Favretto. 2016.

Silva, Janaína Madruga & Silva, Eduardo José Ely. 2014. Contribuição para o Conhecimento da Fauna de Arctiinae (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) no Estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil. EntomoBrasilis, 7 (3): 222-226.

Abstract: The genus Trichromia has about 116 species in the Neotropical region, but only one is known to occur in the Rio Grande do Sul state: the species Trichromia repanda. Observations of Trichromia in the Rio Grande do Sul state show two forms occurring in the state. There are several hypotheses that can explain the second form of Trichromia in the Rio Grande do Sul state: a known species of Trichromia outside of Ferro & Teston's (2009) list, a new species of Trichromia, sexual dimorphism, or population variation. The hypothesis of a new species can only be tested by examining the sexual organs, while the hypothesis of sexual dimorphism was tested by comparing descriptions and photographs of museum specimens. The hypothesis of population variation was tested by comparing images of the two forms, but none were intermediate between the two. It was concluded that both forms found in the Rio Grande do Sul state are Trichromia repanda, with one being the male form and the other being the female form.

Resumo: O gênero Trichromia tem cerca de 116 espécies na região neotropical, mas apenas uma é conhecida por ocorrer no estado do Rio Grande do Sul: a espécie Trichromia repanda. Observações de Trichromia no Rio Grande do Sul mostram duas formas ocorrendo no estado. Há algumas hipóteses que podem explicar a segunda forma de Trichromia no Rio Grande do Sul: uma espécie conhecida de Trichromia fora da lista de Ferro & Teston (2009), uma nova espécie de Trichromia, dimorfismo sexual ou variação populacional. A hipótese de nova espécie só pode ser testada verificando os órgãos sexuais, enquanto a hipótese de dimorfismo sexual foi testada através da comparação com descrições e fotografias de exemplares de museu. A hipótese de variação populacional foi testada comparando imagens das duas formas, mas nenhuma foi intermediária entre as duas. Concluiu-se que ambas as formas encontradas no Rio Grande do Sul são Trichromia repanda, sendo uma a forma masculina e a outra a forma feminina.

The genus Trichromia has about 116 species on Neotropical region (Vincent & Laguerre, 2014) but only one is known to occur on Rio Grande do Sul state, the species Trichromia repanda (Ferro & Teston, 2009). A drawing of the species can be found on the book Die Grossschmetterlinge der Erde : eine systematische Bearbeitung der bis jetzt bekannten Grossschmetterlinge, volume 6, plate 46, row d: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/250948#page/95/mode/1up . Many iNaturalist observations of Trichromia in the Rio Grande do Sul can be identified with this drawing, like this one: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93317890.
But others can't: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95476060.
Some hypothesis that can explain the second form of Trichromia on Rio Grande do Sul state:

• A know specie of Trichromia outside of Ferro & Teston, 2009 list;
• A new specie of Trichromia;
• Sexual dimorphism;
• Populacional variation.

I searched observations of the neigborhoods of Rio Grande do Sul state looking for Trichromia to test the first hypothesis. The idea was find an identification at specie level of this second Trichromia form. I could find them on Santa Catarina state and Misiones province, but none was identified at species level.
It's not possible to test new specie hypothesis unless checking sexual organs.
Vincent & Laguerre, 2017 described two new species of Trichromia that showed sexual dimorphism. To test the sexual dimorphism hypothesis I used the funet site (https://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/arctiidae/arctiinae/trichromia/) looking for the descriptions of Trichromia repanda. Hampson, 1901 (https://archive.org/details/catalogueoflepid03brituoft/page/178/mode/1up?view=theater) described the female of the species: "Fore wing with the round apicalpatch conjoined by a broad band to the patch on inner area." This description matched and corroborated the sexual dimorphism hypothesis. Finally I checked BOLD Systems site looking for Trichromia repanda museum specimens and found six males and one female that also corroborated sexual dimorphism hypothesis. https://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=530427.
The populational variation was tested by comparing images of the two forms. Although some variation was found, none was intermediate between the two forms.
I concluded that the two forms of Trichromia found in the Rio Grande do Sul state are both Trichromia repanda, with one being the male form and the other being the female form.

Ferro & Teston, 2009. Composição de espécies de Arctiidae (Lepidoptera) no sul do Brasil: relação entre tipos de vegetação e entre a configuração espacial do hábitat. Revista Brasileira de entomologia 53 (2): 278-286;
Vincent & Laguerre, 2014. Catalogue of the Neotropical Arctiini Leach, 1815 (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae) Zoosystema 36 (2) : 137-533;
Vincent & Laguerre, 2017. Description de deux nouvelles espèces du genre Trichromia Hübner, 1815, de Guyane française (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae). Bulletin de la Socièté entomologique de France 122 (2) : 223-232.