On the Middle Asian taxa of the genus Melanargia Meigen, 1828 (Lepidoptera: Satyridae) with description of a new species and support of the Cox1 mDNA

Abstract

A taxonomic review and molecular phylogeny of the genus Melanargia Meigen, 1828 (Lepidoptera: Satyridae) of the Middle Asian mountains is given. The taxa Melanargia parce parce Staudinger in Staudinger, Bang-Haas, 1882, M. parce lucida Staudinger, 1886 and Melanargia parce persa Groum-Grshimaïlo, 1890 are conspecific, and the following synonyms are resurrected: Melanargia parce parce = Melanargia parce lucida syn. resurr. = Melanargia parce persa syn. resurr. The lectotype of M. parce lucida Staudinger, 1886 is designated. Two species and two subspecies of Melanargia Meigen, 1828 inhabit mountains of Middle Asia: M. parce parce (South Eastern Altay (Kalbinskiy and Sarymsakty ridges), Dzhungaria, Tien-Shan, Gissar-Darvaz, foothills of Western Pamir, North Eastern Afghanistan), M. parce karatavica (Zhdanko, 2012) (Kazakhstan: Karatau Ridge), M. russiae and M. repentina sp. n. (South Western Altay, Dzhungaria, Tien-Shan, northern slopes of Alay mountains sympatric with M. parce parce). The type locality of M. repentina sp. n. is Kyrgyzstan, Alai Mts., 9.6 km NW of Kichi-Karakol settlement, 2667 m, 39°50.370ʹN / 73°19.593ʹE. The differences between the new species and other known species of M. parce species-group from Middle Asia are supported by the molecular phylogeny, based on Cox1 of mDNA and by the structure of male genitalia (the gnathos structure and the aedeagus length). The cladogram (ML, parametric model Kimura-2, 10000 bootstrap replications) indicates two monophyletic clusters: M. repentina sp. n. + M. transcaspica Staudinger, 1901 and M. russiae (Esper, 1783) + M. parce parce. The subspecies Melanargia parce karatavica was not included in the analyses because of insufficient material.

Keywords

• Lepidoptera
• Satyridae
• Melanargia
• new species
• lectotype
• Middle Asia