Muschampia proteides, (WAGNER, 1929)

Hinojosa, Joan C., Dapporto, Leonardo, Brockmann, Ernst, Dincă, Vlad, Tikhonov, Valentin, Grishin, Nick, Lukhtanov, Vladimir A. & Vila, Roger, 2021, Overlooked cryptic diversity in Muschampia (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) adds two species to the European butterfly fauna, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193, pp. 847-859 : 855

MUSCHAMPIA PROTEIDES (WAGNER, 1929)

Type locality: Akşehir , Turkey .

O r i g i n a l r e f e r e n c e: Wa g n e r F. 1 9 2 9. We i t e r e r Beitrag zur Lepidopteren-Fauna Inner-Anatoliens. M i t t e i l u n g e n d e r M ü n ch n e r E n t o m o l o g i s ch e n Gesellschaft 19: 1–28.

Original name: Hesperia proto proteides .

Nuclear and mitochondrial markers displayed differences with respect to M. proto and M. alta . We recover it as monophyletic in the phylogeny based on ITS2. However, it is paraphyletic with respect to M. alta in the COI phylogeny. Minimum uncorrected p -distances are 2.87% (ITS2) and 2.08% (COI) with respect to M. alta and 2.53% (ITS2) and 2.96% (COI) with respect to M. proto . The gnathos of the male genitalia is typically wide and short, a character useful to differentiate it from M. proto and M. alta . No diagnostic traits in the wings to distinguish it from M. proto and M. alta were observed, although no morphometric analyses were performed.

Distribution: From eastern Europe ( Ukraine, southwestern Russia), Anatolia and Israel to the northeastern coast of the Caspian Sea and Iran. Its distribution further east is unclear. We confirm its presence in the Greek islands of Symi and Tilos, which suggests that it is the only species of the triplet found in the eastern Aegean Islands.