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For the first time, we obtained for the first time a COI DNA barcode from museum specimens of the Old World swallowtail butterfly endemic to Taiwan, Papilio machaon ssp. sylvina, that has disappeared since the devastating Jiji earthquake in 1999 that shook Central Taiwan. We demonstrate that this population was not only phenotypically distinct, but also had a unique mitochondrial haplotype among all other Holarctic populations of P. machaon. The life history of P. m. sylvina from rearing experiments carried out in the 1990s is illustrated and discussed., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Nazari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Even though the high plateaus of Qinghai-Tibet and Iran share many faunal elements, the historical biogeography of the species present in this area are not very well understood. We present a complete COI barcode library for Aporia Hübner and a first comprehensive phylogeny for the genus including all known species and majority of subspecies using ten available genes (COI-COII, ND1, ND5, Cytb, EF-1a, Wg, 16S, 28S-D2/D3 and 28S-D8). We then focus on A. leucodice (Eversmann, 1843) and related taxa in order to resolve some long-standing taxonomic issues in this species-group. Based on DNA sequence data as well as morphology, we raise Aporia illumina (Grum-Grshimailo 1890) stat. nov. (= pseudoillumina Tshikolovets 2021 syn. nov.) as a distinct species and designate a lectotype; synonymize Aporia leucodice leucodice Eversmann, 1843 (= A. l. morosevitshae Sheljuzhko, 1908 syn. nov.); and describe a new species, Aporia ahura sp. nov., from the Central Alborz Mountains in northern Iran., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The Black-veined White Aporia crataegi (Linnaeus, 1758), a common and widespread butterfly ranging from northwestern Africa to Europe and Asia, has been extinct in Britain since the 1920s and is on a steady decline in several other parts of its range. In order to investigate genetic diversity within A. crataegi and its correspondence with current subspecies-level taxonomy, we barcoded 173 specimens from across its range including, for the first time, extinct populations from Britain and Korea. Using next generation sequencing we also obtained a sequence for Aporia joubini, a peculiar taxon from China known only by its type specimen collected in the early twentieth century. Our phylogenetic analysis placed A. joubini sister to A. oberthuri, although further taxon sampling may reveal a different scheme. Within A. crataegi, we observed a shallow and weak mitogenomic structure with only a few distinct lineages in North Africa, Sicily, Iran, and Japan. Eurasian populations, including those extinct in Britain and Korea, clustered into a large set of closely allied lineages, consistent with a recent expansion during the Late Pleistocene glacial period. This study highlights the importance of museum collections and the unique opportunities they provide in documenting species diversity and helping conservation efforts.

Based on new evidence from morphology, ecology, and DNA barcodes, the taxon originally described as Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) valiabadi asadii Charmeux, 2016, is raised to a specific rank, Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) asadii bona species. It is endemic to Northern Iran and confined to the Dalasm valley in the Alborz mountains. Its preferred larval host is the annual Onobrychis mazanderanica Reich. f., while the larvae of its sister species P. valiabadi feed on O. talagonica Reich. f. (Fabaceae). It can be diagnosed from P. valiabadi and other closely-related species by differences in wing pattern and male genitalia. Our time-calibrated phylogenetic hypothesis estimates that the common ancestor of P. asadii and P. valiabadi split around 750,000 years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the first record of the larvae of a species in the butterfly genus Ochlodes (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) feeding on rice and causing notable damage. Based on the results of DNA barcoding of the reared adults and further investigation of male and female genitalia, we revise the status of taxon hyrcana Christoph, 1893 as a subspecies of Ochlodes sylvanus (Esper, [1778]) stat. rev. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calinaga (Moore 1857) is a rare and enigmatic Asian butterfly genus whose phylogenetic placement within Nymphalidae has only recently been established. The evolutionary history of Calinaga species however remains unknown. Here we explore the phylogeography of Calinaga using 1310 bp of sequence data from two molecular (mtDNA barcode and ribosomal protein S5 nuclear gene) and two morphological traits (genitalia and wing pattern). Within the proposed phylogenetic framework, we estimate the ages of divergence within the genus and reconstruct their historical biogeography. We found strong support for monophyly of Calinaga and support for the most recent accepted species in the genus. Our results indicate that the common ancestor of Calinaga first split in the Eocene (∼43 million years ago) in southern China, probably as a consequence of geological and environmental impacts of the collision of the Indian and Asian subcontinents. In the Oligocene/Miocene, the extrusion of Indochina from the continent caused further dramatic orogenetic changes that promoted isolation and speciation events within the genus while Pleistocene climatic changes also influenced the distribution and further speciation. A persal-vicariance analysis suggests that vicariance events have played a far more important role than dispersal in the distribution of extant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of butterflies depicted in ancient Egyptian tomb scenes and other artifacts dating from the predynastic period (c. 3000 BCE) until the end of the pharaonic era (c. 100 BCE) reveals a wide spectrum of stylistic changes over time. A cladistic analysis shows relative consistency of style during the Old Kingdom period, copying of old styles during the Middle Kingdom period, and a deviation from tradition during the New Kingdom period. The utility of a cladistic approach in assigning dates and localities to ancient Egyptian artifacts with unknown origins is demonstrated. We discuss lepidopteran symbolism in ancient Egypt, and investigate how some of these depictions may highlight historical shifts in species ranges since pharaonic times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. We investigated genetic divergence and phylogenetic relationships amongst all known species of Palaearctic butterflies of the genus Melanargia using sequence information from three genes [mitochondrial cox1 barcode region (658 bp), ribosomal 16S rRNA ( c. 518 bp), and nuclear wg (404 bp)]. Results show a lack of DNA divergence among several poorly characterized taxa, as well as deep divergences within and between others. We corroborated the molecular information with morphological and genitalic characters as well as with geographic data. We revise the taxonomy of Melanargia, and propose a new systematic scheme for the group. We revive some previous synonymies ( M. lucasi meadwaldoi stat. rev., M. ines fathme stat. rev., M. ines jahandiezi stat. rev., M. meridionalis tapaishanensis stat. rev.), revise the status of some subspecies into species ( M. transcaspica stat. nov., M. lucida stat. nov., M. wiskotti stat. nov.) and of several species into subspecies of other taxa ( M. evartianae sadjadii stat. nov., M. larissa hylata stat. nov., M. larissa grumi stat. nov., M. larissa syriaca stat. nov., M. larissa titea stat. nov., M. lugens montana stat. nov., M. epimede ganymedes stat. nov.), revise the status of subspecies and transfer them to other species ( M. larissa lorestanensis stat. nov., M. larissa iranica stat. nov., M. larissa karabagi stat. rev., M. larissa kocaki stat. nov., M. transcaspica eberti stat. nov.), and propose new synonymies ( M. larissa titea = M. titea standfussi syn. nov. = M. titea titania syn. nov., M. leda leda = M. leda yunnana syn. nov., M. lugens lugens = M. lugens ahyoui syn. nov., M. lugens hengshanensis = M. lugens hoenei syn. nov., M. halimede halimede = M. halimede gratiani syn. nov., M. asiatica asiatica = M. asiatica dejeani syn. nov., = M. asiatica elisa syn. nov., = M. asiatica sigberti syn. nov.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the conservation of the name Papilio danae Fabricius, 1775, a legitimate name for a common butterfly with several subspecies found in 50 countries within Africa, Arabia and Asia. Colitis danae is known as the nominate Indian subspecies of Scarlet Crimson Tip. The generic name Colitis was introduced in 1819, but was not largely utilized primarily because its type species was not understood. According to A. O. Koçak, the Indian Papilio danae Fabricius, 1775 is the junior primary homonym of the European Papilio danae Hufnagel, 1766. It was recommended that the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) utilize its power to suppress the name danae Hufganel and include the name danae Fabricius, 1775 on the Official List of Specific Names in Zoology.