A new species of Lycaena Fabricius, 1807 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from Mongolia with a review of genitalia characters of the related taxa

Abstract

Lycaena ratushinskayae sp. n. is described from the Baitag mountain range isolated in the Dzhungarian Gobi desert, SW Mongolia. Externally the new species strongly differs from related taxa by a dark-gray underside and deep reddish upperside with widened blackish margins. A new study of the male genitalia is performed with the diagnosis of new and all related species. It is confirmed that juxta presents the most valuable sclerite for taxonomic purposes.

New subspecies of Oeneis urda Eversmann, 1847 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) from Irkutsk region, Russia

“…It is obvious that within the Altai and Sayan we have a wide hybridization of two different "forms", western and eastern. This is exactly the picture that is typical for many species on the territory of Tuva, for example, Agriades glandon (de Prunner, 1798) (Churkin 2005) or Euphydryas iduna (Dalman, 1816) (Churkin & Kolesnichenko 2003).…”

Short review of Clossiana freija (Thunberg, 1791) (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) from Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia with the description of two new subspecies

“…The variability is noticeable, but not great, the light stroke can be reduced, the color darkened, the size and number of spots can change, but in general it is an easily recognizable butterfly, the range of which resembles, for example, Euphydryas iduna iduna (Dalman, 1816) (Churkin & Kolesnichenko 2003).…”

“…The Tunkinsky Goltsy range and Eastern Tuva are inhabited by the populations transitional between the nominative subspecies and ssp. eremita Churkin et Kolesnicheko, 2003, the main range of which covers SE Altai and Mongolian Altai (the general distribution for this species is more complicated, because another (third) taxon with its own set of characters takes part in the hybridization) (Churkin & Kolesnichenko 2003). It's surprising that some authors are still using as a subspecies name sajana Higgins, 1950, whereas this name is originally invalid because it was proposed as infrasubspecific form (Churkin 2003).…”

Notes on the Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) species group of China, with a description of a new species from the Eastern Tian Shan

“…The Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) species group comprises about 20 species distributed from Southwest Asia to China through Central Asia and the Himalayas [Krupitsky et al, 2021]. Mountains and deserts of Central Asia are known as the biodiversity hotspots of this group: the majority of the species were described during the last 25 years from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, China and Mongolia , 2008Churkin, Pletnev, 2012;Yakovlev, 2012;Churkin et al, 2019]. Five taxa of the P. christophi group were described from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China: P. rogneda (Grum-Grshimailo, 1890) (type locality: 60 km W Kashgar, Myin-Ola), P. choltagi Zhdanko et Churkin, 2001 (type locality: Kholtag Mts.…”