Mimoides Brown, 1991

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Opler, Paul A. & Grishin, Nick V., 2019, Changes to North American butterfly names, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 8 (2), pp. 1-12 : 2

Mimoides Brown, 1991 is a subgenus of Eurytides Hübner, [1821]

Previously placed in the genus Mimoides Brown, 1991 (type species Papilio ariarathes, Esper, 1788), Papilio phaon Boisduval, 1836 is sister to Eurytides marcellus (Cramer, 1777) among butterflies of Canada and the US, and is phylogenetically close to Eurytides philolaus (Boisduval, 1836), suggesting that it should be placed in the genus Eurytides Hübner, [1821] (type species Eurytides iphitas Hübner, [1821]) (Fig. 1). Additionally taking into account that Mimoides species are close to each other as evidenced by their morphology (Tyler et al. 1994) and COI barcodes (Ratnasingham & Hebert 2007), we propose to treat Mimoides as a subgenus of Eurytides among its other subgenera: Protesilaus Swainson, [1832] (type species Papilio protesilaus Linnaeus, 1758 ) and Neographium Möhn, 2002 (type species Papilio philolaus Boisduval, 1836 ). Curiously, Papilio marcellus Cramer, 1777 is in the same clade with Mimoides , but is in a different clade from Neographium, and therefore should be included in the subgenus Mimoides despite the similarity in wing patterns to Eurytides (Neographium) philolaus . Finally, application of the genus Protographium Munroe (1961) (type species Papilio leosthenes E. Doubleday, 1846 ) to the New World is unwarranted, because genomic data show that the Australian endemic P. leosthenes is sister to another Old World genus Graphium Scopoli, 1777 (type species Papilio sarpedon Linnaeus, 1758 ) and is in a different clade from Eurytides (including Mimoides and Neographium) ( Fig. 1 ). Eurytides versus Protographium is yet another case of striking wing pattern convergence in butterflies.

Figures

Fig. 1. Eurytides, Mimoides and Protographium.