Telegonus (Rhabdoides) missionus Grishin, 2025

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 : 10

Additional specimens of Telegonus (Rhabdoides) missionus Grishin, 2025 confirm it as a species-level taxon

Genomic sequencing of additional specimens of Telegonus Hübner, [1819] (type species Papilio talus Cramer, 1777 ) reveals that Telegonus (Rhabdoides) missionus Grishin, 2025 (type locality USA: Texas, Hidalgo Co., Mission, holotype sequenced as NVG-14111E04) is a species widely distributed in eastern Mexico, recorded from the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and Veracruz ( Fig. 5 red), thus confirming it as a species-level taxon, and not an unusual single specimen. This recently described species ( Zhang et al. 2025a) is sympatric with Telegonus (Rhabdoides) gilberti H. Freeman, 1969 (type locality in Mexico, San Luis Potosí, holotype sequenced as NVG-15104B08) over its range, with sequenced specimens of the latter species from the same three Mexican states shown in the trees ( Fig. 5 blue). Both species ( T. missionus and T. gilberti ) have been recorded from Hidalgo County in Texas, USA ( Fig. 5 highlighted yellow). In the nuclear genome trees, T. missionus is sister to Telegonus (Rhabdoides) hopfferi (Plötz, 1881) (type locality in Mexico, probably Oaxaca), a southern Mexico species, and specimens of both species were sequenced from Veracruz, ( Fig. 5a, b).

As in our previous study ( Zhang et al. 2025a), we observe confidently supported incongruence between the three phylogenetic trees of the T. alector species group ( Fig. 5). In the Z chromosome tree ( Fig 5b) and the mitochondrial genome tree ( Fig 5c), the T. alector group partitions into two prominently separated clades with T. gilberti being in the second clade, thus more strongly differentiated genetically from the three species in the first clade: Telegonus (Rhabdoides) alector (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1867) (type locality in Colombia), T. hopfferi , and T. missionus ; while in the tree constructed from protein-coding regions of autosomes ( Fig 5a), all four species belong to the same clade, with T. gilberti being sister to the other three species. In addition to males, genomic sequencing also reveals females of T. missionus , and one is illustrated here for the first time ( Fig. 7). Females are similar to males in their darker appearance compared to females of related species (but paler than a typical T. missionus male), with a reduced white band on the ventral forewing, which has a beige (i.e., white scales sprinkled over brown) costal area from the base to about a third of the forewing length; a white triangle partly overscaled with brown at the base of the ventral hindwing; weakly expressed but noticeable pale overscaling in the discal area of the dorsal forewing corresponding to the white ventral band; and darker (not prominently orange-yellow) ventral side of the body.