Hesperopsis Dyar, 1905

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2023, Genomics-based taxonomic rearrangement of Achlyodini and Carcharodini (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Pyrginae), Insecta Mundi 2023 (16), pp. 1-33 : 28

Hesperopsis Dyar, 1905 is a subgenus of Staphylus Godman and Salvin, 1896

The phylogenetic tree did not reveal a prominent separation between Staphylus Godman and Salvin, 1896 (type species Helias ascalaphus Staudinger, 1876 ) and Hesperopsis Dyar, 1905 (type species Thanaos alpheus W. H. Edwards, 1876 ), quite the opposite, it illustrates their closeness ( Fig. 5 ), which is equally reflected in the similarity of their wing shapes and patterns. Staphylus and Hesperopsis are closer related than some species of Bolla to each other. While Staphylus is a large genus, Hesperopsis is a small group of three North American species. Including them in Staphylus is not expected to cause confusion but would highlight their close relationships. Therefore, we proposed to treat Hesperopsis Dyar, 1905 as a subgenus of Staphylus Godman and Salvin, 1896 .

Figures

Figure 5. The nuclear genome-based phylogeny of Carcharodini, middle segment (continues in 6, see Fig. 4 for the first segment) showing Pholisorina subtrib. n. Species formerly placed in Staphylus are labeled in red. Asterisk marks a species with a dedicated study (Lemes et al. 2023) that already assigned it to Bolla. See Fig. 1 for notations.