Copaeodes Speyer, 1877

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 : 6

Copaeodes Speyer, 1877 is a subgenus of Oarisma Scudder, 1872

Previously placed in the genus Oarisma Scudder, 1872 (type species Hesperia powesheik Parker, 1870), Thymelicus edwardsii W. Barnes, 1897 is not monophyletic with it, and is a close sister to the two US species from the genus Copaeodes Speyer, 1877, including its type species Heteropterus procris W. H. Edwards, 1871, a junior subjective synonym of Ancyloxipha [sic!] aurantiaca Hewitson, 1868 ( Fig. 9 ). Investigation of other Oarisma and Copaeodes species reveals that they are close to each other and difficult to partition between the two genera ( Fig. 9 ). Only the close cluster of 3 species O. poweshiek (Parker, 1870), O. garita (Reakirt, 1866), and O. era Dyar, 1927 constitute Oarisma sensu stricto. Others fall in a different and broad clade, which in addition to Copaeodes includes other species previously placed in Oarisma , e.g., O. edwardsii (W. Barnes, 1897) and O. nanus (Herrich-Schäffer, 1865) , and we treat this clade as a subgenus Copaeodes within a broaderdefined Oarisma .

Figures

Fig. 9. Oarisma and Copaeodes. US species (tree above) and including others (gray tree below, asterisks mark type species).