Disentangling the taxonomy of Parides burchellanus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and related taxa

Abstract

With eight described taxa, the “panthonus clade” of Parides Hübner, [1819] has been the subject of some recent taxonomic rearrangements, including the number of species that composed this clade. Based on new molecular data, including sequences of the type species of the two putative species of this group, namely Parides burchellanus (Westwood, 1872) and P. panthonus panthonus (Cramer, 1780), a new phylogenetic hypothesis is presented to this clade. The obtained phylogeny recovered the “panthonus clade” monophyletic and divided in two sub-clades. Based on this tree and genetic distances, the “panthonus clade” is composed by two species: 1) P. burchellanus, which has no recognized subspecies, and 2) P. panthonus (Cramer, 1780), with seven described subspecies. The present study provided significant contributions towards the systematics of the “panthonus clade”. As such, this marks an important first step towards supporting future studies of the ecology, biogeography, and species conservation within this clade.