Lasaia oaxacensis Grishin, 2024

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 : 14

Lasaia oaxacensis Grishin, 2024 , stat. nov. is a species distinct from Lasaia sessilis Schaus, 1890

Lasaia sessilis oaxacensis Grishin, 2024 (type locality in Mexico: Oaxaca) was described from a single specimen that was distinct from but closely related to Lasaia sessilis Schaus, 1890 (type locality in Mexico: Veracruz, Coatepec, syntype sequenced as NVG-18048A05). We found and sequenced two more specimens of L. sessilis oaxacensis and were able to carry out more detailed genomic comparison between this taxon and the nominate subspecies ( Fig. 9 ), leading to Fst (genetic differentiation) and Gmin (introgression) statistics (computed on the Z chromosome) of 0.42 and 0.01, respectively. These numbers are in better agreement with species-level differences between the two taxa. Sequenced specimens of L. sessilis sessilis from distant localities from Mexico (San Luis Potosí and Veracruz) to Costa Rica cluster very closely with each other in genomic trees ( Fig. 9 blue) and are more distant from L. sessilis oaxacensis . Moreover, the genetic differentiation in the Z chromosome is larger between L. sessilis sessilis and L. sessilis oaxacensis ( Fig. 9a blue and red) than between the two species, Lasaia moeros Staudinger, 1888 (type locality in Peru: Chanchamayo) and Lasaia kennethi Weeks, 1901 (type locality in Bolivia) ( Fig. 9a purple and green). For all these reasons, we propose that Lasaia oaxacensis Grishin, 2024, stat. nov. is a species distinct from Lasaia sessilis Schaus, 1890 .

Figures

Fig. 9. Phylogenetic trees of Lasaia sessilis and relatives inferred from protein-coding regions in: a) the Z chromosome, based on 234,846 positions, and b) the mitochondrial genome. Different species are colored differently: L. sessilis (blue), L. oaxacensis stat. nov. (red), L. moeros (purple), and L. kennethi (green). Ultrafast bootstrap (Minh et al. 2013) values are shown at nodes.