Zeritis chrysaor subsp. midas Heath, 2023

Heath, Alan, 2023, Chrysoritis Butler (Papilionoidea: Lycaenidae: Aphnaeinae) - Part III: An integrative taxonomic revision, Metamorphosis 34 (1), pp. 11-28 : 14

C. chrysaor midas ( Pennington 1962) stat. nov.

Poecilmitis midas Pennington 1962: 272 .

Holotype: Ditsong NM. Type locality: Oukloof Poort, Nieuwveld Mts. It occurs only at the higher elevations (> 1650m).

Taxonomy: The clade of C. chrysaor midas s.s. (n = 5) is monophyletic and nested within C. chrysaor in the COI tree. We consider this to be bona fide C. c. midas . The single sequences of C. c. midas in the EF, CAD and H3 trees are all also nested within C. chrysaor . Identifications of most extant published records of C. c. midas have been based solely on wing facies (blackish hind wing verso); these identifications were usually backed up by their ecology (montane distribution, host ant and host plant). C. chrysaor midas s.s. can occur in the same neighbourhood as C. c. chrysaor , but avoiding sympatry on account of their different elevations. In these areas of parapatry, C. chrysaor midas s.s. differs from its lower altitude kin in host ants ( Crem. peringueyi ) and host plants ( Diospyros austro-africana De Winter ). Being ecologically and genetically differentiated, C. chrysaor midas s.s. may have the makings of an incipient species, but morphologically it differs from the nominate chrysaor only in the greater degree of melanistic scaling in the hind wing verso; furthermore, samples of nominate chrysaor closely resembling C. c. midas are also found scattered among samples of C. c. chrysaor in the COI tree (eg., C004, C398, C399 and C005, treated here as C. c. chrysaor ), and are considered to be a part of C. c. chrysaor . Chrysoritis midas is here synonymised as Chrysoritis chrysaor midas stat. nov.

Conservation status: LC.