Auricirrus, Zhang & Cong & Shen & Song & Grishin, 2023

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2023, Butterfly classification and species discovery using genomics, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 11 (3), pp. 1-94 : 33-34

Auricirrus Grishin , new subgenus

http://zoobank.org/ B527E473-8675-489E-B979-EAFF56996F4B

Type species. Papilio thysbe Linnaeus, 1764 .

Definition. African genus Chrysoritis Butler, 1898 (type species Zeritis oreas Trimen, 1891 ) has been divided into two clades: the eastern (chrysaor clade) and the western (includes the thysbe clade) ( Talavera et al. 2020) ( Fig. 21). Strong genetic differentiation between these clades warrants their recognition at least as subgenera: estimated divergence time between them is about 17 Mya ( Talavera et al. 2020), comparable to that of some genera. Among all Chrysoritis species, the type species of available genus-group names belong to the eastern clade ( Talavera et al. 2020): Zeritis oreas Trimen, 1891 (of Chrysoritis ), Zeritis lycegenes Trimen, 1874 , which is a subspecies of Zeritis lyncurium Trimen, 1868 (of Poecilmitis Butler, 1899 ), Zeritis phosphor Trimen, 1864 (of Bowkeria Quickelberge, 1972 ), and Phasis dicksoni Gabriel, 1947 (of Oxychaeta Tite & Dickson, 1973 ). This eastern clade represents the nominotypical subgenus. However, the western clade remains without a name and represents a new subgenus. This subgenus differs from the nominal by the absence of tibial spicules ( Heath 1997), produced (but not tailed) hindwing tornus and/or blue or violet scaling on dorsal surface of wings in some species (lacking in the nominotypical subgenus), and in species with more rounded tornus, spots on ventral forewing—especially at the end of discal cell—are with more extensive silvery scaling. A combination of the following nuclear genomic base pairs is diagnostic: cce3229.3.2:A633G, cce 2784.3.3: C85G, cce 2423.1.2:A2767T, cce7537.1.5:C57T, cce5689.1.7:A744G.

Etymology. The name Chrysoritis may have been derived from the Greek "chryso" (gold) and "ritis" (hair or curl). Their Latin equivalents are "aurum" (gold) and “cirrus" (lock or curl of hair), connected with a Species included. The type species (i.e., Papilio thysbe Linnaeus, 1764 ) and 41 others, names given in their original combinations: Poecilmitis adonis Pennington, 1962 , Poecilmitis turneri amatola Dickson & McMaster, 1967 , Chrysoritis adonis aridimontis Heath & Pringle, 2007 , Poecilmitis aridus Pennington, 1953 , Poecilmitis azurius Swanepoel, 1975 , Poecilmitis beaufortia Dickson, 1966 , Poecilmitis beulah Quickelberge, 1966 , Poecilmitis blencathrae Heath & Ball, 1992 , Poecilmitis braueri Pennington, 1967 , Poecilmitis thysbe brooksi Riley, 1938 , Zeritis chrysantas Trimen, 1868 , Poecilmitis (Poecilmitis) daphne Dickson, 1975 , Poecilmitis endymion Pennington, 1962 , Zeritis felthami Trimen, 1904 , Poecilmitis irene Pennington, 1968 , Poecilmitis lyndseyae Henning, 1979 , Poecilmitis lysander Pennington, 1962 , Poecilmitis mithras Pringle, 1994 , Phasis thysbe var. nigricans Aurivillius, 1924 , Poecilmitis orientalis Swanepoel, 1976 , Papilio palmus Stoll, 1781 , Poecilmitis pan Pennington, 1962 , Poecilmitis pelion Pennington, 1953 , Poecilmitis penningtoni Riley, 1938 , Poecilmitis perseus Henning, 1977 , Poecilmitis plutus Pennington, 1967 , Poecilmitis pyramus Pennington, 1953 , Zeritis pyroeis Trimen, 1864 , Poecilmitis rileyi Dickson, 1966 , Poecilmitis stepheni Dickson, 1978 , Poecilmitis swanepoeli Dickson, 1965 , Poecilmitis thysbe trimeni Riley, 1938 , Poecilmitis turneri Riley, 1938 , Poecilmitis uranus Pennington, 1962 , Poecilmitis violescens Dickson, 1971 , Poecilmitis whitei Dickson, 1994 , Poecilmitis williami Heath, 1997 , Poecilmitis wykehami Dickson, 1980 , Papilio zeuxo Linnaeus, 1764 , Phasis zeuxo zonarius Riley, 1938 , Poecilmitis nigricans zwartbergae Dickson, 1982 (including their subspecies and synonyms). Species taxonomy follows Heath (2023) and Williams (2023c).

Parent taxon. Genus Chrysoritis Butler, 1898 .