Chrysoritis zwartbergae, Heath, 2023

Heath, Alan, 2023, Chrysoritis Butler (Papilionoidea: Lycaenidae: Aphnaeinae) - Part III: An integrative taxonomic revision, Metamorphosis 34 (1), pp. 11-28 : 25

Chrysoritis zwartbergae stat. nov. (Dickson 1982)

Poecilmitis nigricans zwartbergae Dickson 1982: 41 .

Holotype: NHM, London. Type locality: Zwartberg Mts. MPT: montane slopes but also at lower elevations. Host ant: Crem. liengmei .

Taxonomy: Polyphyletic in the COI tree but monophyletic in the CAD tree (90% support, all COI lineages represented in the CAD tree). One of its two COI lineages occurs in the Swartberge, Ladismith, and Kamanassieberge; the other is scattered among three south coast localities; the five samples of this taxon span ~ 185 km from Shaws Pass to Ladismith, WC. This taxon was previously treated as a subspecies of C. nigricans with which it shares similar facies. Although similar, its wing facies differs minimally but consistently in the margin of blue structural scaling. Hence it is raised to species status, C. zwartbergae stat. nov. This decision was made prior to analysis of the CAD data, and despite it appearing polyphyletic in the COI tree. The three populations from the south coast are here placed as undescribed subspecies of C. zwartbergae subject to a more in-depth molecular study and more extensive sampling.

Conservation status of C. z. zwartbergae : LC.