Duvalier Briceño, Mariano Pereira, Cirilo Umaña, Mehrdad Hajibabaei, Luis Felipe Chavarria, Paul D. N. Hebert, Roberto Espinoza, Manuel Pardo Ríos, Winnie Hallwachs, Edwin Apu, Manuel R Pereira, Thibaud Decaëns, Gloria Sihezar, Adrian Guadamuz, Karolyn Darrow, Harry Ramirez, Elieth Cantillano, Guillermo Pereira, Lucia Rios, Elda Araya, Ricardo Carballo Calero, Daniel Herbin, Jose Cortez, Ana Cordoba, Carolina Cano, Ruth Franco, Keiner Aragon, Petrona Rios, Dinia Martinez, Roster Moraga, J. Bolling Sullivan, Jorge Hernandez, Hazel Cambronero, Donald J. Harvey, Rodolphe Rougerie, Calixto Moraga, Dunia Garcia, Sergio Pardo Ríos, Isidro Chacon Gamboa, M. Alex Smith, José Francisco Pérez, Johan Vargas, Waldy Medina, Bernardo Espinoza, Minor Carmona, Osvaldo Espinoza, Daniel H. Janzen, Freddy Quesada, Claudia Bertrand, and Pablo Umaña
Biodiversity of tropical Saturniidae, as measured through traditionally described and catalogued species, strongly risks pooling cryptic species under one name. We examined the DNA barcodes, morphology, habitus and ecology of 32 ‘well known’ species of dry forest saturniid moths from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in north-western Costa Rica and found that they contain as many as 49 biological entities that are probably separate species. The most prominent splitting of traditional species – Eacles imperialis, Automeris zugana, Automeris tridens, Othorene verana, Hylesia dalina, Dirphia avia, Syssphinx molina, Syssphinx colla, and Syssphinx quadrilineata – is where one species was believed to breed in dry forest and rain forest, but is found to be two biological entities variously distinguishable by DNA barcodes and morphology, habitus, and/or microecological distribution. This implies that ‘standard’ biological information about each traditional species may be an unconscious mix of interspecific information, and begs renewed DNA barcoding, closer attention to so-called intraspecific variation, and increased museum collection and curation of specimens from more individual and ecologically characterised sites – as well as eventually more species descriptions. Simultaneously, this inclusion of sibling species as individual entities in biodiversity studies, rather than pooled under one traditional name, reduces the degree of ecological and evolutionary generalisation perceived by the observer.