Vernia verna sequoyah (H. Freeman, 1942)

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 : 84

Vernia verna sequoyah (H. Freeman, 1942) is a valid subspecies

Polites verna sequoyah H. Freeman, 1942 (type locality USA: Arkansas, Little Rock) was placed by Evans (1955) as a junior subjective synonym of Pamphila verna W. H. Edwards, 1862 (type locality in USA: Mercer Co.), the type species of and currently in the genus Vernia Grishin, 2019. The genomic tree reveals that sequenced specimens of Vernia verna partition into two clades ( Fig. 53). The clades are characterized by close genetic similarity of specimens within each clade and a certain level of genetic differentiation between the clades. Therefore, populations assigned to these clades can be treated as two distinct subspecies. The neotype of V. verna and a syntype of Pamphila pottawattomie Worthington, 1880 from “N. Ind.” (type locality in USA: IL, Cook Co., and IN, Lake Co.) belong to one clade, and the holotype of P. v. sequoyah belongs to the other. We propose that the two clades represent two subspecies and reinstate Vernia verna sequoyah (H. Freeman, 1942) , stat. rest. as a valid subspecies. Moreover, due to genetic differentiation, future studies of additional specimens may determine that it is a species-level taxon.