III. Telchin Hübner, [1825]

In the last three decades, the genus Telchin has undergone some changes in terms of the number of species that comprise it. Fletcher & Nye (1982) and Miller (1995) ignored the genus, but Lamas (1995) restored it, since Telchin Hübner, [1825] is the oldest generic name assigned to Papilio licus Drury, 1773. Lamas (1995) considered it as a monotypic genus, having Telchin licus (Drury, 1773) as its only species, with twelve subspecies. Later, González & Cock (2004) synonymized Erythrocastnia Houlbert, 1918 with Telchin Hübner, [1825]. Then, Moraes & Duarte (2009) studied three species of the Telchin licus complex, synonymizing Castniomera Houlbert, 1918 with Telchin. They listed three species within the genus, T. atymnius, T. licus, and T. syphax. Years later, Moraes & Duarte (2014) synonymized four other genera under Telchin: Amauta Houlbert, 1918, Xanthocastnia Houlbert, 1918, Frostetola Oiticica, 1955, and Divana Miller, 1982, and transferred Geyeria hubneri (Gray, 1838) to Telchin, increasing the number of species within the genus to eleven. However, in a review of the genera Amauta and Divana, Worthy et al. (2022) reinstated both of them.

Currently, the number of Telchin species seems to be reduced to six (T. atymnius, T. evalthe, T. gramivora, T. hubneri, T. licus and T. syphax), with a large number of subspecies. However, a thorough revision of the genus is needed, not only because some of those subspecies could be synonymized or restored to species level, but some taxa might be placed in other genera.

As of today, this is possibly the genus with the widest distribution in the Americas and can be found from Mexico, throughout Central America to South America (Miller 1986, 1995; Lamas 1995; García-Díaz 2022a). However, confusion among species and subspecies in the genus in the literature, together with the lack of taxonomic and distributional limits between taxa make it difficult to clearly understand the group. Adults are diurnal and some species such as T. atymnius and T. licus are pests of heliconias (Heliconia spp.: Heliconiaceae), bananas and plantains (Musa spp.: Musaceae) and sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum: Poaceae) in several countries (Gallego 1946, 1963; Lara 1964a, 1964b, 1965, 1966a, 1966b; Miller 1986; González & Fernández-Yépez 1993; González & Cock 2004; González et al. 2010; González et al. 2017; González & Domagała 2019; Aya et al. 2022; García-Díaz 2022a).