Grass-skippers of the genus Rhinthon are extremely rare on Hispaniola. Schwartz has been collecting butterflies for many years on Hispaniola and reports having found one female Skipper of this genus only (Schwartz 1983). He thinks this specimen is representing “a new taxon, probably most closely related to Rh. cubana” (Schwartz 1983). In a later publication (Schwartz 1989), he reports seven Bush’s Skippers (R. bushi) and not a single Cuban Skipper (R. cubana), withdrawing the preliminary identification he published earlier in 1983. He is still expressing some doubts on these new IDs however (see Schwartz 1989).
Takizawa et al (2003) report only one specimen of Bush’s Skippers (R. bushi) as known from Hispaniola (from Haiti). They reassign five of Schwartz’s specimen to the Cuban Skipper (R. cubana) and report additional specimen of the later. Perez-Gelabert (2008) on the other side, lists Bush’s Skipper only and doesn’t mention the Cuban Skipper.
Warren et al (2012/2013) show the holotype of R. bushi from Hispaniola (Dominican Republic / Paradis). They put the name of the genus in parenthesis however, which might mean they think Bush’s skipper belongs to another genus. Furthermore, Warren et al (2012/2013) show the holotype of R. cubana from Cuba (island west of Hispaniola) and additional specimen from Puerto Rico (island east of Hispaniola), giving the range of the species as Greater Antilles.
In a nutshell: The holotype of R. bushi was collected on Hispaniola and all lists report this skipper. This means R. bushi is certainly a species that occurs on this island. As for the Cuban Skipper: Occurring on islands west and east of Hispaniola, it would be strange if R. cubana did not occur on Hispaniola. Several photos provided by Lisa Johnson, taken by her here on the island, clearly show the Cuban Skipper. Which means there is no doubt that the Cuban skipper occurs on the island too.
We thank Lisa L. Johnson for providing the above picture of R. bushi, shot in the Dominican Republic. And for providing photos of R. cubana (not shown).
The Good, the Bad 'nd the Ugly 