Morys Godman, 1900

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 : 69-70

Morys Godman, 1900 is a subgenus of Lerema Scudder, 1872

Morys Godman, 1900 (type species Morys valda Evans, 1955 ) clusters closely with Lerema Scudder, 1872 (type species Papilio accius J. E. Smith, 1797 ) in genomic trees and is paraphyletic ( Fig. 14 ). Genetic closeness of the two genus-group taxa is reflected in COI barcodes of their type species differing by only 6.8% (45 bp). Being combined, Morys with Lerema form a more prominent genus than either of them separately. For these reasons, we propose to treat Morys Godman, 1900 as a subgenus of Lerema Scudder, 1872 .

Lerema etelka ( Schaus, 1902) reinstated status, new combination, with Phanis sylvia Kaye, 1914 as its junior subjective synonym

Euroto etelka Schaus, 1902 (type locality Trinidad) is listed as a junior subjective synonym of Pamphila geisa Möschler, 1879 (type locality Colombia) ( Mielke 2005). Sequencing syntypes of P. geisa (NVG-15035F08) in the ZMHB and E. etelka (NVG-18113E06) in the USNM suggests that they are distinct species due to substantial genetic differentiation between them ( Fig. 14 ): for example, their COI barcodes differ by 5.3% (34 bp). Furthermore, genomic level phylogeny that includes syntypes of Euroto lyde Godman, 1900 (type locality Mexico: Veracruz and Tabasco, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, NVG-21013E01 and E02 in the CMNH) among other specimens reveals that E. etelka is not monophyletic with Lerema geisa , new combination, but is sister to the clade formed by L. geisa and Lerema lyde , new combination ( Fig. 14 ). Therefore, we reinstate Lerema etelka ( Schaus, 1902) , reinstated status, new combination, as a species and place Phanis sylvia Kaye, 1914 (type locality Trinidad), currently a junior subjective synonym of L. geisa , as its junior subjective synonym. Finally, we confirm the species status of L. lyde (Godman, 1900) (type locality Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica) ( Fig. 14 ) as suggested by Lewis (1973) and reinforced by Llorente et al. (1990), instead of placing this taxon as a subspecies of L. geisa adopted by some authors ( Evans 1955; Mielke 2005). The COI barcode difference between the two taxa 2.9% (19 bp).

Sequencing of a female specimen in the USNM collection (NVG-19021F01) bearing labels || Phanis | cumbre | Sch || Type | No. 6026 | U.S. N.M. ||, the first one in Schaus’ handwriting, reveals that it is L. etelka . We do not consider this specimen a paralectotype of Phanis cumbre (type locality Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Petropolis, lectotype designated by Dolibaina et al. (2014)) despite it being identified as this species by Schaus, because only “male” is mentioned and “Petropolis, Brazil ” is given as the only locality for P. cumbre in the original description ( Schaus 1902), but this specimen is a female from “Tijuca, Brazil ” according to its label.

Figures

Figure 14. Genomic tree of Moncina, part 2. See Fig. 1 legend for notations.