Telegonus (Rhabdoides) flavimargo 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 : 13-15

Telegonus (Rhabdoides) flavimargo Grishin, 2025 , Telegonus (Rhabdoides) panamus Grishin, 2025 , and Telegonus (Rhabdoides) tatus Grishin, 2025 are confirmed as species-level taxa by sequencing of additional specimens

Genomic analysis enables us to confidently propose new species from a single specimen of either sex that is genetically differentiated from others at the species level ( Zhang et al. 2025a). However, even fortified with the whole genome shotgun dataset, this single-specimen approach carries a risk of describing a hybrid or a contaminated dataset as a “species,” despite all the precautions and careful analysis we undertake. Therefore, we strive to find and sequence additional specimens of the newly proposed species and investigate them further. Here, we confirm the species-level status of Telegonus (Rhabdoides) flavimargo Grishin, 2025 (type locality in Costa Rica: Limón, 2 additional specimens) ( Fig. 8 green) and Telegonus (Rhabdoides) tatus Grishin, 2005 (type locality in Panama: Panamá, 6 additional specimens) ( Fig. 10 maroon) proposed from a single specimen and Telegonus (Rhabdoides) panamus Grishin, 2025 (type locality in Panama: Barro Colorado Island, 4 additional specimens) originally described from the holotype and the paratype ( Fig. 10 purple). For all these species, additional specimens group closely with the holotypes in the genomic trees, resulting in comb-like clades characteristic of conspecific specimens. Although for T. flavimargo all three known specimens are from the same locality ( Costa Rica: Limón Province, Guapiles), we are able to extend the known distribution for the other two species: T. panamus has been recorded from both central (around the Panama Canal) and eastern Panama (Darien) ( Fig. 10 purple); and two specimens from northern Ecuador fall in the same clade among T. tatus specimens from central Panama and therefore, we identify them as this species ( Fig. 10 maroon).

A modified preliminary taxonomic list of Telegonus (Rhabdoides Scudder, 1889) species from the clade analyzed in Zhang et al. (2025) and this work

Additional genomic sequencing and analyses suggest several revisions to our preliminary taxonomic list of species from the subgenus Rhabdoides Scudder, 1889 (only from the clade we have analyzed). The list from Zhang et al. (2025a) is updated below, using the same rationale and format. We introduced a new species and a new subspecies and revised the status of one subspecies to species. Furthermore, tweaks to likely sister group of two species: Telegonus meretrix (Hewitson, 1876) and Telegonus fulvimargo Grishin, 2025 , as evidenced by strong statistical support in both the Z chromosome and the mitochondrial genome trees ( Fig. 10). The former species was placed before the latter two, because it lacks the yellower ventral hindwing margin characteristic of the latter, and the next species group in the list (the latimargo species group) starts with pale-margined species.

In the following arrangement from Zhang et al. (2025a), refined below, species of Rhabdoides excluding the clades with Telegonus anaphus (Cramer, 1777) and Telegonus cellus (Boisduval & Le Conte, [1837] are given. The list also includes species discovered by Steinhauser (1987) (“four new species will be added to the group”) that fall within these species groups but remain unpublished, shown in gray font. Type localities (general area only: state, region, department, or county) are in gray font. New taxa described in this study and the category of taxonomic change are in red font. Taxonomic treatment before this work (for valid names) and comments are given in smaller font following a vertical bar | after the type locality; an equal sign = precedes synonyms given in their original genus combination; and a double dagger ‡ marks unavailable names. The list covers 48 valid taxa and 4 yet undescribed species, comprising 46 species (1 newly proposed here and 1 formerly treated as a subspecies) and 6 additional subspecies (1 new).