Zeritis lyncurium subsp. lycegenes (Trimen, 1874) Heath, 2023

Heath, Alan, 2023, Chrysoritis Butler (Papilionoidea: Lycaenidae: Aphnaeinae) - Part III: An integrative taxonomic revision, Metamorphosis 34 (1), pp. 11-28 : 15

C. lyncurium lycegenes stat. nov. (Trimen 1874: 337)

Zeritis lycegenes Trimen 1874 .

Holotype: NHM, London. Type locality: “ Natal ” . Juvenile stages illustrated in Clark & Dickson (1971: 186).

Known from localities scattered over KZN and southern Mpumalanga, from Wakkerstroom to the lower ridges of the Drakensberg as far south as Loteni, and to the grassy hills of the KZN Midlands.

Taxonomy: Similar facies and possibly a cline between populations of ssp. lyncurium in the west and ssp. lycegenes in the east as proposed by Owen-Johnston (1991). Formerly given species status, this subspecies (n = 3) groups with C. lyncurium (n = 2) in the COI tree (100%), EF tree (98%) and CAD tree (77%). It has a very similar appearance to C. lyncurium , having no consistent differences apart from the extent of black scaling. It is here synonymised as Chrysoritis lyncurium lycegenes stat. nov. Conservation status of C. lyncurium lycegenes : LC.

Western Lineage: non thysbe clade

Five species: zeuxo , zonarius , pyroeis , felthami , chrysantas . C. pyroeis has iridescence and structural colouring which the other four species lack. The Western lineage is found in the COI, Total Dataset and all nuclear gene trees (>92% bootstrap support in all trees). C. chrysantas is the only one in this grouping represented by a single specimen in this study; the others are each supported by 100% bootstrap values in the COI and Total Dataset Trees and>93% in the CAD, H3 and EF trees.