EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGYENTOMOLOGY ISSN (online): 1802-8829 Eur. J. Entomol. 114: 179–194, 2017 http://www.eje.cz doi: 10.14411/eje.2017.023 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Improving knowledge of the subgenus Agrodiaetus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Polyommatus) in Eastern Europe: Overview of the Romanian fauna VLAD DINCĂ1, 2, LEVENTE SZÉKELY 3, ZSOLT BÁLINT 4, MARIUS SKOLKA5, SERGIU TÖRÖK 6 and PAUL D.N. HEBERT 2 1 Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37, 08003, Barcelona, Spain; e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Ontario, Canada; e-mail:
[email protected] 3 Bd. George Moroianu 297, Săcele, 505600, Romania; e-mail:
[email protected] 4 Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Baross utca 13, 1088 Budapest, Hungary; e-mail:
[email protected] 5 Natural Sciences Department, “Ovidius” University of Constanța, Aleea universității nr.1, Corp B, 900470, Constanța, Romania; e-mail:
[email protected] 6 Municipal Museum Mediaș, 46 Mihai Viteazul St., Mediaș, 551034, Romania; e-mail:
[email protected] Key words. Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae, Agrodiaetus, Polyommatus admetus, Polyommatus damon, Polyommatus ripartii, conservation, DNA barcodes, haplotypes, Romania, Dobrogea Abstract. The butterfl y subgenus Agrodiaetus of the genus Polyommatus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) is distributed in the western and central Palaearctic and represents a taxonomically challenging group due to its rapid diversifi cation coupled, in many cases, with very limited availability of morphological diagnostic characters. In this study we provide a detailed overview of this subgenus in the Romanian fauna, a country where scattered, poorly documented records suggest the presence of three species: Polyom- matus (Agrodiaetus) damon, P.