Gomalia litoralis Swinhoe, 1885

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2025, Advancing butterfly systematics through genomic analysis, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 12 (5), pp. 1-201 : 143

Gomalia litoralis Swinhoe, 1885 , stat. rest. is a valid species distinct from Gomalia albofasciata F. Moore, 1879

Genomic analysis of Gomalia F. Moore, 1879 ( type species Gomalia albofasciata F. Moore, 1879 ) specimens from Oman and Yemen reveals that they partition into two clades ( Fig. 104 ). One male (NVG-24054D01, Oman, Rustaq, 5-Mar-1979, T. B. Larsen leg. [ZMUC], Fig. 105b ) is placed with Gomalia jeanneli levana Benyamini, 1990 ( type locality in Israel), is phenotypically similar to it in being ventrally pale with a diffuse cream band and small size, and we identify it as this subspecies. Other specimens (T. B. Larsen leg. in ZMUC from Oman: 1♂ NVG-24054B04 Al Batinah Region, Barka 4-Mar-1979, Fig. 105c and 1 ♀ NVG-24054B05 Rustaq, 5-Mar-1979, Fig. 105d , and 1 ♂ NVG-24054B06 Yemen, Wadi Dahr, N of Sana'a, 10-May-1980) are larger, with more extensive and better-defined cream bands, and are in the clade with Gomalia elma (Trimen, 1862) ( type locality in South Africa) ( Fig. 106c, d ), thus being more distant from G. albofasciata ( type locality in Sri Lanka) ( Fig. 105e ) and Gomalia jeanneli (Picard, 1949) ( type locality in Kenya) ( Fig. 105a ), and are genetically differentiated from them all at the species level ( Fig. 104 ), e.g., their COI barcodes differ by 1.7% (11 bp) from G. elma and by 5.6% (37 bp) from G. albofasciata . Therefore, these specimens represent a distinct species that we identified as Gomalia litoralis Swinhoe, 1885 ( type locality Pakistan: Karachi), which is currently treated as a junior subjective synonym of G. albofasciata . Therefore, we propose that Gomalia litoralis Swinhoe, 1885 , stat. rest. is a valid species distinct from Gomalia albofasciata F. Moore, 1879 .

Figures

Fig. 104. Phylogenetic trees of Gomalia inferred from protein-coding regions in: a) the nuclear genome (autosomes), based on 1,176,192 positions, b) the Z chromosome, based on 116,643 positions, and c) the mitochondrial genome. Ultrafast bootstrap (Minh et al. 2013) values are shown at nodes. Primary types are labeled in red-purple. Different species are colored differently: G. jeanneli (purple), G. albofasciata (cyan), G. litoralis stat. rest. (red), G. elma (blue), and G. westafra sp. n. (green).

Fig. 105. Specimens of Gomalia in dorsal (left) and ventral (right) views, additional data in text. a) G. jeanneli jeanneli ♂ NVG-21068F05 Ethiopia, Harari or Oromia Region, Erer River, 20-Aug-1955, S. Chojnacki leg. [MGCL], b) G. jeanneli levana ♂ NVG-24054D01, c–d) G. litoralis stat. rest. from Oman: c) ♂ NVG-24054B04 and d) ♀ NVG-24054B05, e) G. albofasciata ♂ NVG-22044B02 India, “Coimbatore Prov.” [Tamil Nadu], 9-Nov-1945, P. Susai Nathan leg. [CUIC].

Fig. 1. Sequenced males of Chlosyne from Canada: British Columbia, Osoyoos [CNC], with their locality labels: a) C. flavula blackmorei NVG-24014H10 and b) C. palla sterope NVG-24015A09.

Fig. 106. Specimens of Gomalia in dorsal (left) and ventral (right) views, additional data are in text. Gomalia westafra sp. n.: a) holotype ♂ NVG-24066B03, b) paratype ♀ NVG-24054B03 and G. elma from South Africa: c) ♂ NVG-24066C07, UF FLMNH MGCL 1162207, “Transvaal Pienaar’s River” [Limpopo Province, Pienaarsrivier], ~1970, Wm. Henning leg., genitalia NVG241111-28 (Fig. 107b) [MGCL], d) ♀ NVG-19046G10 Pretoria, 6-Mar-1915 [AMNH].