Quadrus (Zera) gellius ( Mabille, 1903 )

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 : 11

Quadrus (Zera) gellius ( Mabille, 1903) and Quadrus (Zera) servius ( Plötz, 1884) are species distinct from Quadrus (Zera) hyacinthinus (Mabille, 1877)

Genomic sequencing of the lectotype of Achlyodes servius Plötz, 1884 (type locality in Brazil, sequenced as NVG-21115E08) from “Rio” in MFNB currently treated as a subspecies of Quadrus (Zera) hyacinthinus (Mabille, 1877) (type locality not specified, likely in Central America) reveals that it is in a clade different from it and instead is closer to Quadrus (Zera) tetrastigma (Sepp, [1847]) (type locality in Suriname) while being genetically differentiated from the latter as well ( Fig. 1 , 2a ), e.g., COI barcode difference of 0.9% (6 bp) while showing consistent separation in the Z chromosome with Fst / Gmin of 0.51/0.002. Furthermore, Pythonides gellius Mabille, 1903 (type locality in “ Ecuador ”, likely in SE South America), currently another subspecies of Q. hyacinthinus , while being closer related to it than A. servius , is also non-monophyletic with it and shows notable genetic differentiation from it ( Fig. 1 , 2a ), e.g., COI barcode difference of 3.8% (25 bp). Therefore, we propose that Quadrus (Zera) gellius ( Mabille, 1903) , restored status, and Quadrus (Zera) servius ( Plötz, 1884) , restored status, are species distinct from Quadrus (Zera) hyacinthinus (Mabille, 1877) and from Quadrus (Zera) tetrastigma (Sepp, [1847]) .

Figures

Figure 1. The nuclear genome-based phylogeny of Achlyodini (continued in Fig. 3). Only the segment of the tree corresponding to the subtribe Pythonidina is shown. The bottom segment of the tree (subtribe Achlyodinia) is replaced with four dots and is shown in Fig. 3. The tree is constructed from protein-coding regions in autosomes. The tree is rooted with Carcharodus alceae (NVG-18087F02, GenBank barcode OR665734), not displayed. Statistical support values are shown by nodes. For each specimen, its name adopted in this work is given first, and a previously used name is listed in square brackets (if different), supplemented with the DNA sample number, type status (HT holotype, LT lectotype, ST syntype, T type, PT paratype, and PLT paralectotype), general locality and collection year (“old” means collection year known, but likely before 1950, mostly around the turn of 20th century). See Table S1 in the Supplemental file (Zhang et al. 2023d) for additional data about these specimens. Synonyms are given in parentheses preceded by “=”. The type status refers to this synonym if the synonym name is provided. Names of genera (larger font, more prominent tree branches, on the left) and subgenera (smaller font, less prominent tree branches, on the right) are shown by the clades corresponding to these taxa. New genus-group names are highlighted in yellow. Branches leading to the type species (or their closest sequenced relatives) of valid genus-group names are marked with large black dots and refer to the subgenus (in parenthesis) given in the corresponding name, or the genus if the subgenus is not specified. The same notations are used in Fig. 3–6. Names of taxa that before this work were placed in genera Pythonides (red), Gindanes (cyan), Quadrus (green), Ouleus (blue), and Zera (purple) are shown in color to illustrate rampant violations of monophyly in these taxa, corrected here.

Figure 2. Quadrus (Zera) nuclear genome-based phylogeny and type specimens. a) The nuclear genome-based phylogeny of selected species: Q. vivax sp. n. (red), Q. hyacinthinus (purple), Q. hosta (cyan), Q. servius stat. rest. (blue and magenta, with its synonym Achlyodes erisichthon labeled in blue) rooted with the remaining Zera species (not shown; see Fig. 1). Specimens shown below are highlighted in yellow; see Fig. 1 for other notations. b) Lectotype of Quadrus (Zera) servius designated herein, with its labels shown above on the right. c) Holotype of Quadrus (Zera) vivax sp. n. Specimens are in dorsal (left) and ventral (right) views, data in text. The scale bar at the bottom refers to specimens; the scale bar at the top refers to labels reduced by 1/3 compared to specimens.