Clytius unifascia (Mabille, 1889), 2024

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui, Song, Leina & Grishin, Nick V., 2024, New taxa of butterflies supported by genomic analysis, The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey 12 (3), pp. 1-63 : 24-25

Clytius unifascia (Mabille, 1889) , comb. nov. is a valid species distinct from Staphylus azteca (Scudder, 1872) and Clytius clytius (Godman & Salvin, 1897)

Genomic sequencing of a syntype of Antigonus unifascia Mabille, 1889 (type locality in Honduras, sequenced as NVG-15033G05) that since Evans (1953) is treated as a junior subjective synonym of Staphylus azteca (Scudder, 1872) (type locality in Mexico: Oaxaca, Tehuantepec), reveals that it is not monophyletic with it and does not even belong to Staphylus Godman and Salvin, 1896 (type species Helias ascalaphus Staudinger, 1875 ) but instead is placed in the genus Clytius Grishin, 2019 (type species Pholisora clytius Godman & Salvin, 1897 ), together with the sequenced primary type specimens of P clytius (type locality in Mexico: Nayarit, Tres Marias Island) and Bolla semitincta Dyar, 1924 (type locality in Colima); the latter is currently treated as a junior subjective synonym of the former ( Fig. 27). Moreover, A. unifascia is genetically differentiated from both C. clytius and B. semitincta at the species level ( Fig. 27), e.g., their COI barcode differences are 2.6% (17 bp) and 1.4% (9 bp), respectively. The latter COI difference is smaller, but A. unifascia is not monophyletic with B. semitincta in the Z chromosome tree ( Fig. 27b). Therefore, we propose that Clytius unifascia (Mabille, 1889) , comb. nov., stat. rest. is a species-level taxon distinct from both Staphylus azteca (Scudder, 1872) and Clytius clytius (Godman & Salvin, 1897) .

a syntype in the MFNB collection that bears the following six labels (1 st and 3 rd shades of purple, others white; 3 rd and 4 th handwritten, others printed): [Origin. |?], [Hond. | Wittk.], [nis. uni- | fascia Mab.], [Unifascia | Mab.], [{QR Code} http://coll.mfn-berlin.de/u/ | 80a64f], [DNA sample ID: | NVG-15033G05 | c/o Nick V. Grishin ] as the lectotype of Antigonus unifascia Mabille, 1889 . According to its label, the lectotype was collected in Honduras by Wittkugel. The 3 rd and the 4 th labels are in Mabille’s and Staudinger’s handwriting, respectively. The lectotype has costal folds open on both wings, its abdomen and the tornus of the right hindwing are missing. Images of this specimen photographed by B. Hermier are shown on the Butterflies of America website ( Warren et al. 2024) .