Carcharodini Verity, 1940

Cock, Matthew J. W., 2016, Observations on the biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) with particular reference to Kenya. Part 10. Pyrginae, Carcharodini, Zootaxa 4173 (4), pp. 301-350 : 302

Carcharodini Verity, 1940

Evans (1937) used the term Gomalia group for three genera found in Africa: Spialia Swinhoe , Gomalia Moore and Alenia Evans. Subsequently , he used the term Pyrgus group in his work on the Hesperiidae of Europe, Asia and Australian, which included representatives of the genera Spialia and Gomalia , as well as Erynnis Schrank , Carcharodus Hübner , Muschampia Tutt and Pyrgus Hübner in Europe and Asia ( Evans 1949). He retained this term for his work on the American fauna ( Evans 1953) which included the genera Pyrgus , Heliopetes Billberg , Celotes Godman & Salvin and Pholisora (to which Heliopyrgus Herrera was since added). In his monograph on Spialia, De Jong (1978) continued to use the concept of the Pyrgus group, although now without Erynnis .

The classification developed by Warren et al. (2008, 2009) is based on a combined analysis of DNA and morphological characters of adults and their genitalia. Warren et al. (2008) found the Pyrgus group (without Erynnis ) to be polyphyletic. They concluded that although similar in appearance to the other genera of the Pyrgus group, Alenia belongs in Celaenorrhini , which is supported by their common food plant family: Acanthaceae ( Cock & Congdon 2011b) . Furthermore, they split the remaining genera between two tribes: Carcharodini and Pyrgini . Thus, Gomalia , Carcharodus , Spialia and Muschampia belong in one clade of Carcharodini , which includes another 25 Neotropical genera in different clades, while Pyrgus , Celotes , Heliopyrgus and Heliopetes form one clade within Pyrgini , which contains another 19 Neotropical genera in different clades. This arrangement is considered further in the discussion at the end of this paper.