Delaga Grishin, 1940

Zhang, Jing, Brockmann, Ernst, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui & Grishin, Nick V., 2020, A genomic perspective on the taxonomy of the subtribe Carcharodina (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Carcharodini), Zootaxa 4748 (1), pp. 182-194 : 186

Delaga Grishin , subgen. n.

http://zoobank.org/ A5431ACA-C253-4414-AE23-97A320D45D4D

Type species: Pyrgus delagoae Trimen, 1898 ( Fig. 2b ).

Diagnosis. Keys to 15 in de Jong (1978: 30), constituting his delagoae species group. Morphologically differs from other species in the genus by the following characters. Forewing dorsal white spots at the base of CuA 2 -1A+2A cell (space 1B) absent, and the spot at the base of the discal cell is absent in most species (some white scales along cubital vein may be present forming a narrow streak). Ventral hindwing with a straight median white band, i.e., a white spot in cell RS-M 1 (space 6) joins the central spot (discal cell) to the outer (and not inner) spot in cell Sc+R 1 - RS (space 7). In male genitalia, coecum of aedeagus shortened or absent; valva with the costal process and harpe (=cucullus) lacks a fold covering the costal process, or the fold is small. In DNA COI barcode region, a combination of the following base pairs is diagnostic: T19A, T22A, T70A, T374G, and T646C.

Derivation of the name. The name is a feminine noun in the nominative singular derived from the name of the type species.

Species included: Encompasses delagoae species groups, as it was defined by de Jong (1978). Full species list is given below.

In addition to Ernsta , the phylogenetic trees ( Fig. 1 ) suggest a second new genus, which while being monophyletic with Ernsta is prominently different from it.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic trees of Carcharodina. The trees are constructed from nucleotide sequences of protein-coding regions from: a. nuclear genome; b. Z-chromosome; c. mitochondrial genome. Statistical significance values are shown by each node. d. COI barcode distance diagram is shown to emphasize on close relationships within Carcharodina. In panels a) and b), vertical green (yellow-shaded) line defines genera: each clade crossed by the line is a genus in our treatment; vertical thin gray (blue-shaded) line defines subgenera. Branches in Carcharodina are colored by genus.

FIGURE 2. Specimens of Ernsta and Agyllia. Dorsal and ventral views are on the left and right, respectively. DNA sample IDs are given, other data are in the Tab. S1: a. Ernsta colotes the type species of the genus Ernsta gen. n., NVG-18054F06; b. Ernsta delagoae, the type species of the subgenus Delaga subgen. n., NVG-18054F08; c. Agyllia agylla, the type species of the genus Agyllia gen. n., NVG-19039F03.