Tigasis corope ( Herrich-Schäffer, 1869 ) 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 : 61

Tigasis corope ( Herrich-Schäffer, 1869) , new combination

Sequencing of the two syntypes (male a female) of Cobalus corope Herrich-Schäffer, 1869 (type locality not stated) in the ZMHB (NVG-15035A02 ♂ and NVG-15035A03 ♀) reveals that they do not belong to Cynea Evans, 1955 (type species Hesperia cynea Hewitson, 1876 ), as currently assumed, but are closely related to Tigasis arita Schaus, 1902 (type locality Trinidad), and therefore belong to the genus Tigasis Godman, 1900 (type species Tigasis zalates Godman, 1900 ) ( Fig. 13 ). Specimens of T.arita from South America we sequenced possess identical COI barcodes from across the range from Venezuela, Trinidad, Ecuador and Brazil. However, the barcodes of the two C. corope syntypes, while being identical to each other, differ from T. arita by 0.8% (5 bp). Although this difference is not large, taking into account invariability of T.arita barcodes and not willing to synonymize T. arita under C. corope , we propose to treat C. corope as a species-level taxon pending further studies: Tigasis corope ( Herrich-Schäffer, 1869) , new combination. Moreover, while we do not have other specimens of T. corope from a known locality to figure out where the T. corope syntypes came from, they are not likely to be from Venezuela, Trinidad, Ecuador and Brazil and neighboring areas. It is likely (also see below) they were collected in Panama or western Colombia.

Figures

Figure 13. Genomic tree of Moncina, part 1, and relatives. See Fig. 1 legend for notations.