See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280868643 Taxonomic notes on the genus Satyrium Scudder, 1876 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) of Afghanistan with description of two new taxa Article in Zootaxa · August 2015 DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3985.3.6 · Source: PubMed CITATIONS READS 5 317 3 authors, including: Anatoly Krupitsky Oleg Pak Lomonosov Moscow State University 6 PUBLICATIONS 26 CITATIONS 22 PUBLICATIONS 19 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Callophrys of the Palaerctic region View project Lycaenidae of the Palaearctic region View project All content following this page was uploaded by Oleg Pak on 25 September 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Zootaxa 3985 (3): 421–431 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2015 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3985.3.6 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:998C12D2-B66A-489C-926F-128C0F731A7A Taxonomic notes on the genus Satyrium Scudder, 1876 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) of Afghanistan with description of two new taxa ANATOLY V. KRUPITSKY1,4, IGOR G. PLJUSHTCH2 & OLEG V. PAK3 1A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospect, 33, Moscow, 119071, Russia 2Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, B. Khmelnicky Str., 15, Kiev, 01601, Ukraine 3R. Luxemburg St., 21-5, Donetsk, 83050, Ukraine 4Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract А new species and a new subspecies of Satyrium Scudder, 1876 (subfamily Theclinae, tribe Eumaeini) from the subgenera Superflua Strand, 1910 and Armenia Dubatolov & Korshunov, 1984 respectively are described from Bamyan Province, Central Afghanistan—S. (S.) skrylniki sp. n. and S. (A.) hyrcanica bamiana ssp. n. The new species of Superflua belongs to the Iranian complex of species. It inhabits the territory of Afghanistan, being isolated from two other species of the sub- genus known from the territory in question. The new subspecies of Armenia is also found in isolation both from the nom- inate subspecies and two Middle and Central Asian subspecies. Both findings clarify some aspects of zoogeography of the Central Afghanistan mountains. Key words: Theclinae, Eumaeini, hairstreaks, systematics, zoogeography, Palaearctic, Iranian Plateau, Hindu Kush, mor- phology, genitalia Introduction Afghanistan is one of the most poorly investigated areas of the Palaearctic realm, despite its primary importance as the zoogeographical division between the fauna of Southwest Asia and the faunae of Middle and Central Asia, and thus needs thorough exploration. While some groups of butterflies inhabiting the country are relatively well- studied (e.g. the traditionally “popular” genera Parnassius, Colias, Karanasa and others, which first of all attracted notice of the few entomologists who worked in the region), the Lycaenidae fauna of Afghanistan is rather incomplete. A few investigations on members of the family Lycaenidae inhabiting Afghanistan were conducted by Heydemann (1954), Wyatt (1961), Forster (1937; 1972; 1973), Sakai (1978) and others, resulting in a number of remarkable species, such as Lycaena aeolus Wyatt, 1961, L. kiyokoae Sakai, 1978, L. eberti (Forster, 1972), Micropsyche ariana Mattoni, Vacciniina omotoi Forster, 1972, Agrodiaetus afghanistanus Forster, 1972, A. afghanicus Forster, 1973. The latest significant work on the Afghan butterflies was the well-known book by Sakai (1981) where the family Lycaenidae was treated very superficially. Since the end of the XX century there weren’t any essential butterfly studies in Afghanistan. At the end of 2000’s, a team of Ukrainian entomologists—Igor G. Pljushtch, Oleg V. Pak, Elena S. Ivanova and Yuriy E. Skrylnik—started entomological investigations in Eastern and Central Afghanistan. Their collecting trips were very fruitful and brought a range of new species along with known species new to the region. Undescribed species of Satyridae and Lycaenidae collected during their expeditions were published in recent papers (Churkin et al. 2011; Krupitsky et al. 2012). Materials collected by their expeditions also helped to clarify the status of a controversial taxon in the genus Polyommatus (Vodolazhsky et al. 2011). In the present paper, which is the first in the series of forthcoming papers on the fauna and systematics of the Afghan Lycaenidae, we describe two new taxa of hairstreaks (subfamily Theclinae, tribe Eumaeini), which were collected in Central Afghanistan during the last five years. These discoveries are important from the zoogeographical point of view, as clarifying some aspects of zoogeography of mountains of Central Afghanistan and revealing the link of its fauna to those of the mountain ranges of Central and Southwest Asia. Accepted by C. Prieto: 18 Jun. 2015; published: 13 Jul. 2015 421 Material and methods The dissection of the genitalia was performed using standard methods for Lepidoptera. We warmed the abdomen in hot 10% KOH solution for 30 minutes then it was dissected under the stereomicrosope and transferred to a glass with a drop of glycerin. The images of specimens were taken with a digital camera Canon EOS 5D mark II equipped with Sigma 150 mm f2,8 lens, using originally developed light system and a flash Canon Speedlight 430 EX with diffuser; the images of genitalia were taken using the same camera attached to the stereomicroscope Olympus SZ–ET. The images of imagoes and genitalia were edited with Adobe Photoshop CS6. The nomenclature of the genitalia and wing pattern is adopted after Weidenhoffer et al. (2004). The nervuration nomenclature follows Comstock-Needham system adopted for butterflies (Miller 1969). Diagnostic characters applied to the current study, namely shape of valva, shape of lamella postvaginalis, aedeagus structure, shape of postdiscal line of hindwing underside, arrangment of pattern details, are widley used in the genus Satyrium (Stshetkin 1984; Eckweiler & ten Hagen 2003; Weidenhoffer et al. 2004; Churkin & Pletnev 2010). The following collection acronyms are used throughout the text: ZMMU collection of Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia ZISP collection of Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, St.-Petersburg, Russia SIZK collection of the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine AK private collection of Anatoly Krupitsky, Moscow, Russia OP private collection of Oleg Pak, Donetsk, Ukraine YuS private collection of Yuriy Skrylnik, Kharkov, Ukraine SCh private collection of Sergei Churkin, Reutov, Russia KK private collection of Kirill Kolesnichenko, Moscow, Russia The following specimens of Satyrium were compared with a new species of the subgenus Superflua: Satyrium (Superflua) sassanides: 5 ♂, 3 ♀, Iran, Fars Province, ab. 130 km NE Shiraz, vic. of Bovand, ab. 3000 m, 31.V.– 01.VI.2008, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex. coll. AK; 1 ♂ Iran, Fars Province, ab. 60 km NW Shiraz, 10 km NW Ardakan, 2500 m, 03.VI.2008, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex. coll. AK 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Iran, Kohgiluieh-va-Boyer Ahmad Province, Yasuj area, 15 km NE Sisakht, 3000 m, 04.VI.2008, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex coll. AK. S. (S.) persepolis: 1 ♂, Iran, Fars Province, vic. of Sarvistan, 07.V.2007, K.A. Kolesnichenko leg., ex coll. KK; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Iran, Fars Province, 20 km W Estahban, 09–10.V.2007, K.A. Kolesnichenko leg., ex coll. KK; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Kerman Province, Jebal-Barez Mts., 22.V.2011, A.L. Devyatkin leg., ex coll. AK; all of them were dissected. The following specimens of Satyrium were compared with a new subspecies of the subgenus Armenia: Satyrium (Armenia) hyrcanica hyrcanica: 1 ♂, [Iran], Schahrud, 20.V.[18]87, Herz leg., ex coll. ZISP; 1 ♀, [Iran], Schahrud, 20.V.18[84], Chr.[istoph] leg., ex coll. ZISP; S. (A.) h. seravshanica: 2 ♂, 1 ♀, Tajikistan, Iskanderkul Lake, 2600 m, 01.VII.1976, V. Prasolov leg., ex coll. ZISP; S. (A.) h. badachshanica: 1 ♂, Tajikistan, Kara-Muk Pass., 2900 m, 18.VII.1953, Bundel leg., ex coll. ZISP; 1 ♀, Tajikistan, Pamir, Chorog, hortus botan.[icus], 17.6.1973, 2300 m, M. Zaprjagaev, ex coll. ZISP; all of them were dissected. In the case of the new species of Superflua 25 males and 18 females were dissected, and in the case of the new subspecies of Armenia—5 males and 4 females. Taxonomic overview Satyrium Scudder, 1876 is the Holarctic genus of hairstreaks from the tribe Eumaeini, which is characterized by usually uniformly brown or grey wings upperside and grey or brown underside with more or less developed postdiscal white pattern along with developed submarginal spots in spaces Cu1 and Cu2. The hindwings often bear tails on the second cubital vein (Weidenhoffer et al. 2004). The genus includes subgenus Satyrium, which inhabits both Palaearctic and Nearctic realms along with subgenera Armenia Dubatolov & Korshunov, 1984 and Superflua Strand, 1910, which are known only from the Palaearctic. Formerly the latter subgenera were treated as genera by several authors (e.g., Zhdanko 2000), but study of their morphology and distribution revealed their unity with Satyrium (Weidenhoffer et al. 2004), which is followed accordingly in this paper. 422 · Zootaxa 3985 (3) © 2015 Magnolia Press KRUPITSKY ET AL. During the studies of Central Afghanistan populations of hairstreaks, a new taxon belonging to the subgenus Superflua, and another one in the subgenus Armenia were found. Subgenus