Well, actually I thought I was adding a new taxon. Good thing I checked. The promotion from subspecies to species in this case required that the authors of the official Checklist of Pyraloidea of North America, north of Mexico had to first approve the status revision; then it wends its weary way to BugGuide through MPG. Unfortunately the whole shebang should be a taxon split affecting the southern US through Argentina. I’ve been grappling with how best to accomplish it cuz, of course, it’s not a clear cut separation since the author didn’t have enough specimens from Mexico and the Caribbean Basin to make a determination.
Perhaps this conundrum would best be discussed by flagging the genus? My inclination now is to add the “suspect” taxon again as new taxon with appropriate citations and explanation, make an atlas for the one species for which I feel responsible (mea culpa) and swap the total 69 US obs to the new taxon. At least the US would be correct.
Sorry, I tend to babble on, and on…