Chirgus Grishin, 2019

Grishin, Nick V., 2019, Expanded phenotypic diagnoses for 24 recently named new taxa of Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera), The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 8 (1), pp. 1-16 : 12-13

Genus Chirgus Grishin, 2019

Type species: Hesperia limbata Erschoff, 1876 .

ZooBank registration: 7B1905F1-9471-4BBF-90BF-32360783AB1E

Diagnosis: The genus was defined as a clade from about 10 Mya that contains the species Hesperia limbata Erschoff, 1876 , and putatively synapomorphic DNA characters for this clade were given ( Li et al., 2019). Phenotypically, species in this genus would key to G. 1.2e or G. 1.9 in Evans (1953). Similar to Pyrgus and Burnsius in checkered appearance, produced wings: forewing costa longer than outer margin, hindwing costa about the same length as outer margin, short, extensively scaled palpi with inconspicuous 3rd segment, but differ in the following characters ( Fig. 22 ): tibial tuft present, no costal fold in males, forewing with a white spot at the base of cell CuA1- CuA2, hyaline spots in cells R3-R4, R4-R5, and R5-M1 not produced into cell R2-R3, and (1) if cell R1-R2 without a spot between the apical spots and discal cell spot, then forewing lacks hyaline dot at base of cell R3-R4 between apical spots and discal cell spot, hindwing apex somewhat produced and outer margin slightly concave in cell CuA2-1A+2A, no submarginal white spots on wings; or (2) if cell R1-R2 with a hyaline spot by the costa midway between the cell spot and apical spots, then no streaks marginally from the forewing discal cell spot and no discal spots in cells M1-M2 and M2- M3.

Species included: Hesperia ( Syrichthus [sic]) limbata Erschoff, 1876 , Syrichthus [sic] nigella Weeks, 1902 , Pyrgus barrosi Ureta, 1956 , Pyrgus fides Hayward, 1940 , Syrichtus bocchoris Hewitson, 1874 , and Pyrgus ( Scelothrix [sic]) veturius Plötz, 1884 .

Parent Taxon: Tribe Pyrgini Burmeister, 1878 .

Figures

Fig. 22. Chirgus. Variation in the genus: C. limbata, Chile, C. bocchoris trisignatus, Peru, and C. veturius, Brazil: BA (left to right), all ♂♂.