Cecropterus (Thorybes) viridissimus

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2025, Advancing butterfly systematics through genomic analysis, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 12 (5), pp. 1-201 : 69

Additional specimens of Cecropterus (Thorybes) viridissimus Grishin, 2023

confirm it as a species-level taxon

Cecropterus (Thorybes) viridissimus Grishin, 2023 (type locality in Ecuador) is an unusual species that is very similar in facies to Cecropterus (Thorybes) virescens (Mabille, 1877) (type locality given as “Cayenne” [ French Guiana?]) and closely related to it in the protein-coding genes from autosomes ( Fig. 53a), but is sister to both C. virescens and Cecropterus (Thorybes) egregius (A. Butler, 1870) (type locality unknown) in the Z chromosome and mitochondrial genome trees ( Fig. 53b, c). Known only from its holotype, C. viridissimus might have been a hybrid or had contaminated DNA, thus explaining the phylogenetic incongruence. During further genomic sequencing, we stumbled upon two additional specimens of C. viridissimus ( Figs. 53, 56), both from eastern Ecuador but from different localities distant from the type locality in the Andes of southern Ecuador. One of them is the first confirmed female of C. viridissimus ( Fig. 56b). These specimens closely cluster with the holotype and display the same incongruence of the genomic trees, thus confirming C. viridissimus as a species ( Fig. 53).