Lycaena icarus Rott. F. wiskotti Courvoisier, 1911

Korb, Stanislav K., 2018, On the blue butterfly taxa established by L. G. Courvoisier with the type locality “ Narün ” (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), Zootaxa 4429 (3), pp. 589-594 : 590

Lycaena icarus Rott. F. wiskotti Courvoisier, 1911 ( figs. 4, 5 , 16B )

Courvoisier, 1911a: 141; 1911b: 105, type locality: “Herrn Dr. M. Wiskott aus Narün”.

[ Lycaena ] Venus St. f. Wiskotti Courvoisier, 1911 . Courvoisier, 1913: 291.

The type series contain 3 syntypes. To preserve the nomenclatural stability, I designate here the lectotype of Lycaena icarus Rott. f. wiskotti Courvoisier, 1911 , a male specimen ( figs. 4, 5 ), fully identical to the one figured by L.G. Courvoisier (1911b: pl. 2, fig. 7 ), labelled: pink paper, printed “ TYPUS ”; pink paper, handwritten “Narün | 1909 Wisk.”.

Two other syntype specimens (females) are designated here as paralectotypes.

The comparison of P. icarus wiskotti and P. venus lectotypes ( figs. 1, 2, 4, 5 ) with no doubts show: they are two different species, the taxon wiskotti cannot be included into P. venus : they differ in wings upperside ground color tone and pattern ( P. venus has a black discal spot on the forewing, whereas P. icarus does not have it; P. venus has black marginal spots on the hindwing, P. icarus does not have them; etc.), in wings underside pattern ( P. venus has two subbasal spots in discal cell on the forewing, P. icarus has only one such spot; subtornal spots in P. venus are almost red, in P. icarus they are almost orange; etc.). Due to this reason the subspecies P. venus markusha Korb, 2014 from Inner Tian-Shan was described ( Korb, 2014). Thus, I concluded that the subspecies P. icarus wiskotti which was described from the South-Eastern Russia is clearly a synonym of the nominate subspecies: P. icarus icarus (Rottemburg, 1775) = P. icarus wiskotti (Courvoisier, 1911) , syn.n. (type locality by the lectotype designation: Narün NE from Astrakhan between rivers Volga and Ural).

Figures

FIGURE 16. The designated lecotype labels. A: Lycaena phlaeas naruena (Courvoisier, 1911); B: Polyommatus icarus wiskotti (Courvoisier, 1911); C: Phengaris cyanecula naruena (Courvoisier, 1911); D: Plebejus idas naruena (Courvoisier, 1913).

FIGURES 1–15. Polyommatus, Plebejus, Phengaris and Lycaena specimens. 1, 2: Polyommatus venus (Staudinger, 1886), lectotype male, upperside (1), underside (2). 3: Phengaris cyanecula (Eversmann, 1848), male, Russia, Bashkortostan, Yantysh village, upperside (right side) and underside (left side). 4, 5: Polyommatus icarus wiskotti (Courvoisier, 1911), lectotype male, upperside (4), underside (5). 6: Phengaris cyanecula (Eversmann, 1848), male, Kyrgyzstan, Suusamyr valley, Sary-Kaiky gorge, upperside (right side) and underside (left side). 7, 8: P. cyanecula naruena (Courvoisier, 1911), paralectotype male, upperside (7), underside (8). 9, 12: P. cyanecula naruena (Courvoisier, 1911), lectotype female, upperside (9), underside (12). 10, 11: Plebejus idas naruena (Courvoisier, 1913), lectotype male, upperside (10), underside (11). 13: P. idas (Linnaeus, 1761), male, Kyrgyzstan, South shore of Issyk-Kul lake, Kichi-Dzhargylchak environs, upperside (left side), underside (right side). 14, 15: Lycaena phlaeas naruena (Courvoisier, 1911), lectotype male, upperside (14), underside (15).