Mnasitheus padus ( Evans, 1955 ) 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 : 85

Mnasitheus padus ( Evans, 1955) , new combination

Named by Evans (1955) in Moeris Godman, 1900 (type species Talides striga Geyer, [1832] ), padus Evans, 1955 is not monophyletic with it, and is instead sister to Mnasitheus chrysophrys ( Mabille, 1891) , a valid name for Mnasitheus cephis Godman, 1900 , which is the type species of Mnasitheus ( Fig. 15 ). The two species are genetically close, for example, COI barcodes differ by 7.8% (51 bp), and are similar in genitalia. Moreover, in their revision of Moeris Godman, 1900 (type species Talides striga Geyer, [1832] ), Carneiro et al. (2015) mentioned a cleft between ampulla and harpe that is absent in all Moeris species except M. padus , but present in Eutychide submetallescens Hayward, 1940 that they place in Mnasitheus . Genomic tree shows that M. submetallescens is more distant from the type species of Mnasitheus than M. padus . Therefore, we confidently place M. padus in Mnasitheus , new combination.

Figures

Figure 15. Genomic tree of Moncina, part 3. See Fig. 1 legend for notations.