Cupid's sisterhood: comprehensive sampling sheds light on the systematics and evolution of the cosmopolitan butterfly genus Cupido Schrank, 1801 and its relatives (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

Abstract

Using a dataset of COI barcodes and 13 other genes for Cupido and relatives, we confirm the monophyly of subtribe Everina and the revised genus Cupido (sensu lato), recognizing five genera: Cupido, Everes, Sinocupido, Lacturnea Nazari & Fric gen. nov. and Huegelia Nazari & Fric gen. nov., the latter two described to accommodate Polyommatus lacturnus Godart, [1824], Lycaena hügelii Gistel, 1857, and Huegelia irungbami Fric & Nazari sp. nov. here described from Manipur, India. Our proposed evolutionary hypothesis suggests that subtribe Everina and the genus Cupido emerged respectively around 19.9 and 10.8 MYA in Miocene. We propose the following taxonomic changes: Huegelia huegelii (Gistel, 1857) = Lycaena dipora Moore, 1865 syn. nov. = Everes indicana Lorkovic, 1943 syn. nov.; Everes prosecusa duplex (Alpheraky, 1887) = Lycaena prosecusa var. korlana Staudinger, 1901 syn. nov.; Everes alaina (Staudinger, 1887) comb. nov.; Everes alaina nagarensis Charmeux & Desse, 2006 stat. nov.; Everes prosecusa (Erschoff, 1874) comb. nov.; Pseudozizeeria bohemanni (Wallengren, 1860) comb. nov. and Pseudozizeeria draesekei (Schawerda, 1926) comb. nov.; Larinopoda elorea (Fabricius, 1793) comb. nov.; and Epimastidia diogenes (Blanchard, 1853) comb. nov. We designate the lectotype for Lycaena aricia Grum-Grshimailo, 1902 syn. nov. and synonymize it with Zizina thibetensis Poujade, 1885.