Hesperocharis leucothea (Molina, 1782), 2021

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Opler, Paul A. & Grishin, Nick V., 2021, Genomics-guided refinement of butterfly taxonomy, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 9 (3), pp. 1-55 : 8-9

Hesperocharis leucothea (Molina, 1782) new combination

Papilio leucothea Molina, 1782 (type locality Chile), currently placed in the genus Mathania Oberthür, 1890 , originates within Hesperocharis Felder, 1862 (type species Pieris erota Lucas, 1852 ) according to the genome-scale tree (Fig. 8), which implies Hesperocharis leucothea (Molina, 1782) comb. n.

Reliquia Ackery, 1975 is a junior subjective synonym of Pontia [Fabricius], 1807 Baltia Moore, 1878 and Pontieuchloia Verity, 1929 are subgenera of Pontia [Fabricius], 1807

A small genus Baltia Moore, 1878 (type species Mesapia shawii Bates, 1873 ) originates within Pontia [Fabricius], 1807 (type species Papilio daplidice Linnaeus, 1758 ), rendering Pontia paraphyletic (Fig. 9). Baltia is a confident but comparatively distant sister to the clade of two closely related species Pontia chloridice Hübner, [1813] (the type species of Pontieuchloia Verity, 1929 , currently a junior subjective synonym of Pontia ) and Pontia beckerii (W. H. Edwards, 1871) . E.g., COI barcodes of B. shawii and P. chloridice differ by 8.5% (51 bp). To restore monophyly of Pontia and, at the same time, keep the relative distinction of Baltia , we propose that Baltia Moore, 1878 is a subgenus of Pontia [Fabricius], 1807. If Baltia is a subgenus and not a synonym, clades comparable to it in prominence should be defined as subgenera. In addition to the nominal subgenus (Fig. 9 blue and pink), of which Synchloe Hübner, 1818 (type species Papilio callidice Hübner, [1800] ) is kept as a junior subjective synonym, we propose that Pontieuchloia Verity, 1929 is a valid subgenus (Fig. 9 cyan). For these subgenera to be monophyletic, a new subgenus is proposed next for the clade with Pontia sisymbrii (Boisduval, 1852) (Fig. 9 magenta).