Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta Grishin, 2024

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2025, Update to: Advancing butterfly systematics through genomic analysis, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 12 (6), pp. 1-36 : 25

Additional specimens of Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta Grishin, 2024

confirm it as a species-level taxon

Genomic analysis of Heliopetes Billberg, 1820 (type species Papilio niveus Cramer, 1775 , which is a junior subjective synonym of Papilio arsalte Linnaeus, 1758 ) reveals four additional specimens of Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta Grishin, 2024 (type locality Mexico, Oaxaca, Candelaria Loxicha), all from the type locality and collected by E. C. Welling ( Fig. 17 red), thus confirming that it is a species-level taxon and not an unusual single specimen. In all three trees, H. acuta is sister to the clade consisting of three species: Heliopetes (Heliopetes) lana Grishin, 2023 (type locality in Guatemala), Heliopetes (Heliopetes) alana (Reakirt, 1868) (type locality in Colombia), and Heliopetes (Heliopetes) chimbo Evans, 1953 (type locality in Ecuador: Chimbo), and, therefore, is the most distinct species in this group. Here, we illustrate male genitalia of H. acuta ( Fig. 18 ) and they differ from those of H. lana , a species closest in distribution or possibly even sympatric with it (see figs. 302–303 in Zhang et al. (2023a) for its genitalia photographs), by a terminally rounder and flatter (shell-shaped in the dorsal half) harpe, which is not prominently turning inward and bears coarser serrations mostly along its dorsoposterior margin; a more robust ampulla; and slightly narrower, more separated uncus arms.

Figures

Fig. 17. Phylogenetic trees of selected Heliopetes (Heliopetes) alana relatives constructed from protein-coding regions in: a) the nuclear genome (autosomes), based on 887,994 positions, b) the Z chromosome, based on 261,456 positions, and c) the mitochondrial genome. Different species are colored differently: H. acuta (red), H. lana (blue), H. alana (green), H. chimbo (purple), H. petrus (Hübner, [1819]) (olive), H. ochroleuca J. Zikán, 1938 (cyan), and H. leucola (Hewitson, 1868) (black).

Fig. 18. Male genitalia of Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta specimen NVG-23114F07 from Mexico: Oaxaca, Candelaria Loxicha, 31-Aug-1971, E. C. Welling leg., genitalia NVG241118-79 [CMNH] in left lateral (left) and dorsal (right) views.