Corticea vicinus ( Plötz, 1884 ) Zhang & Cong & Shen & Grishin, 2022

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui & Grishin, Nick V., 2022, Taxonomic changes suggested by the genomic analysis of Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera), Insecta Mundi 2022 (921), pp. 1-135 : 88-89

Corticea vicinus ( Plötz, 1884) , new combination

Apaustus vicinus Plötz, 1884 (Herrich-Schäffer in litt.) (type locality not specified) has been placed in his new genus Lento by Evans (1955) (type species Pamphila lento Mabille, 1878 ), who probably examined Godman’s copy of an unpublished illustration of this species by Plötz ( Fig. 12r ) in the Natural History Museum, London, but have not seen any specimens. Although there is general resemblance between the illustration and some of Lento species, the agreement is not ideal. Lento species tend to have forewing discal band invading discal cell, or the discal cell spot separate from the band, or hindwing mostly orange above, not with an broad and long orange band as in A. vicinus . We found two old specimens, one in the ZMHB and the other in the MTD ( Fig. 12s,t ) labeled “ vicinus ” that agreed with the Plötz illustration much better than any of the Lento species. Presently, we consider these specimens to be A. vicinus , but are conducting additional studies about its identity. The specimen in the ZMHB is from the Staudinger collection and may even be a possible syntype of A. vicinus . Both specimens are not Lento but Corticea Evans, 1955 (type species Hesperia corticea Plötz, 1882 ), identified by their phenotype as closely resembling Corticea schwarzi (E. Bell, 1941) (type locality Colombia) and differing from it mostly in the shape of orange band on hindwing above also reflected in the pattern differences below. We sequenced the specimen in MTD, from Colombia: Magdalena (NVG-18096C08), along with another specimen of this species in the CMNH (NVG- 21012E11), and our genomic tree placed it as sister to Corticea sylva (Hayward, 1942) (type locality Ecuador) in the same clade with C. schwarzi ( Fig. 16 ), differing from C. sylva by 2.6% (17 bp) in COI barcode. Therefore, we transfer Apaustus vicinus from Lento to Corticea forming Corticea vicinus ( Plötz, 1884) , new combination. Curiously, the C. vicinus specimen largely shares mitochondrial genome with C. schwarzi , for example, COI barcode difference between them in only 0.6% (4 bp), possibly due to introgression or hybrid origin of this species that is closer to C. sylva in nuclear genome, but in wing patterns is more similar to C. schwarzi .

Pyrrhocalles Mabille, 1904 and Asbolis Mabille, 1904 are junior subjective synonyms of Choranthus Scudder, 1872

Genomic tree reveals that Choranthus Scudder, 1872 (type species Hesperia radians Lucas, 1857 ) is paraphyletic with respect to Pyrrhocalles Mabille, 1904 (type species Pamphila antiqua Herrich-Schäffer, 1863 ) and Asbolis Mabille, 1904 (type and the only species Goniloba sandarac Herrich-Schäffer, 1865 , a junior subjective synonym of Eudamus capucinus Lucas, 1857 ), which are sisters ( Fig. 16 ). Genetic differentiation between the species in these three genera is similar to that in their close relatives Corticea Evans, 1955 and Anthoptus E. Bell, 1942 (type species Hesperia epictetus Fabricius, 1793 ). With only Asbolis capucinus being abnormally distinct in its wing shapes and patterns, other species are more similar, for example, Choranthus lilliae E. Bell, 1931 resembles a smaller version of Pyrrhocalles jamaicensis ( Schaus, 1902) . Therefore, it appears that the best way to restore monophyly is to consider all these species congeneric and propose Pyrrhocalles and Asbolis as new synonyms of Choranthus .

Figures

Figure 12. Specimens of Hesperiinae. a) Decinea colombiana Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; b) ibid. ventral; c) Cynea rope Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; d) ibid. ventral; e) Hesperia dido Plötz, 1882 neotype dorsal; f) ibid. ventral; g) Godman’s copy of an unpublished Plötz’s illustration of H. dido, left/right dorsal/ventral, no. 577; h) ibid. no. 577a; i) Lerema lucius Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; j) ibid. ventral; k) Godman’s copy of an unpublished Plötz’s illustration of Hesperia lochius Plötz, 1882, left/right dorsal/ventral, no. 576; l) H. lochius illustration (left-right inverted for comparison) from the plate 187c[5] in Draudt (1921-1924), ventral; m) Cymaenes laureolus (Schaus, 1913) ventral, Panama: Cocoli, 4-Oct-1962, leg. G. B. Small, NVG-7250 [USNM]; n) ibid. Mexico: Veracruz, Coatepec, Jun-1917, NVG-15111G01 [AMNH]; o) Lerodea sonex Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; p) ibid. ventral; q) Metiscus goth Grishin, sp. n. holotype dorsal; r) Godman’s copy of an unpublished Plötz’s illustration of Apaustus vicinus Plötz, 1884, left/right dorsal/ventral, no. 764; s) specimen of Corticea from the Staudinger and Bang-Haas collection bearing an old identification label “Padraona vicinus”, NVG-18096C08, dorsal; t) ibid. ventral. Specimen images are to scale and missing data are in the text. Photographs a–d (by Bernard Hermier) and g, h, k, r (by N.V.G.) are © of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum London and are made available under Creative Commons License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), and photographs o, p are © of Jim Brock, used with permission.

Figure 16. Genomic tree of Anthoptina, Falgina and relatives. See Fig. 1 legend for notations.