Chrysoritis mithras (Pringle 1995), 2023

Heath, Alan, 2023, Chrysoritis Butler (Papilionoidea: Lycaenidae: Aphnaeinae) - Part III: An integrative taxonomic revision, Metamorphosis 34 (1), pp. 11-28 : 23

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.4314/met.v34i1.02

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15747037

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/744C87AA-E74B-D748-FCC3-268978BEFA85

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Chrysoritis mithras (Pringle 1995)
status

stat. nov.

Chrysoritis mithras (Pringle 1995) View in CoL , stat. rev.

Poecilmitis mithras Pringle 1995: 107 View in CoL .

Holotype: NHM, London. Type locality: Brenton-on-Sea, Nr. Knysna . Paratypes from near Still Bay . MPT: hilltops and prominences in coastal terrain. Host ant: Crem. peringueyi .

Taxonomy: This is the only taxon in the thysbe clade supported by EF (95% support for the two samples) in addition to COI (95%). The two CAD sequences of C. mithras are identical but also shared with two other samples. The two sister clades of C. mithras in the COI tree (explained below) are represented in the EF and CAD trees. The population from the type locality at Brenton, formerly treated as C. thysbe mithras , is here revised back to C. mithras stat. rev.

Conservation status: CR.

The western population from Mossel Bay to Cape Agulhas, (n = 5) formerly C. thysbe thysbe , is provisionally treated here as an undescribed subspecies of C. mithras but more thorough investigation is needed; its conservation status has not been assessed. This western population of C. mithras is morphologically and ecologically similar to C. thysbe thysbe . It is separated from the Brenton ‘type’ population (n = 2) by 12 mutational steps in the network and their wing facies differ minimally. The COI tree places samples from Mossel Bay, Gourits River Mouth, Still Bay, Witsand and Cape Agulhas, previously assigned to C. thysbe thysbe , as sister to the Brenton population and not associated with C. thysbe phylogenetically. Material from Pearly Beach westwards to the Cape Peninsula remains C. t. thysbe . The distance from Cape Agulhas to Pearly Beach (~ 50 km) has not yet been adequately searched to assess the allopatric gap between C. t. thysbe and C. mithras .

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Lepidoptera

SuperFamily

Papilionoidea

Family

Lycaenidae

Genus

Chrysoritis

Loc

Chrysoritis mithras (Pringle 1995)

Heath, Alan 2023
2023
Loc

Poecilmitis mithras Pringle 1995: 107

Butler 1899: 107
1899
GBIF Dataset (for parent article) Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF