Grishin, Zhang & Cong & Shen & Opler & Grishin, 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 : 9

Sisymbria Grishin , new subgenus

http://zoobank.org/ 28C486B5-3F65-4CDD-AC44-3FE386B58D0B

Type species. Pieris sisymbrii Boisduval, 1852 .

Definition. This new subgenus differs from other subgenera of Pontia by the following combination of characters: forewing vein R 3 longer than in other subgenera, about half of vein R 4+5 length; androconia present in the forewing discal cell spot in males, this spot is narrower than in other subgenera, with a notch on the outer edge (smoothly curved of straight in Baltia ) and without a line of white scales along the discal cross-vein that is curved less strongly than in most other subgenera towards the wing base; dorsal hindwing without prominent bar at the end of discal cell; aedeagus shorter and relatively broader than in other subgenera, prominently curved at phallobase; hindwing below with gray or brown (not green or yellow) scaling along yellowish veins; full-grown caterpillar with orange-yellow framed with black rings on grayish segments; univoltine in spring. See Chang (1963) for elaboration on and illustrations of some of these characters as they are given for P. sisymbrii .

Etymology. The name is a feminine noun in the nominative singular, formed from the type species name.

Species included. Only the type species.

Parent taxon. Genus Pontia [Fabricius], 1807.

Comments. The genomic tree reveals markedly uneven rates of evolution within Pontia (Fig. 9): the nominotypical subgenus evolves about 2 times faster than other subgenera. This observation combined with rather substantial genetic differentiation among Pontia , including the COI barcode, which in P. (Sisymbria) sisymbrii and P. (Pontia) daplidice differs by 8.7% (57 bp), and close similarity in phenotypes of Pontia species creates a unique situation. On the one hand, Pontia (including Baltia ) is a morphologically compact genus. On the other hand, strong genetic diversification behind this apparent phenotypic similarity may suggest elevating subgenera of Pontia to genera (which will return Baltia to the genus status), a step that we refrain from.