Lycaena, Fabricius, 1807

Korb, Stanislav K., 2018, On the blue butterfly taxa established by L. G. Courvoisier with the type locality “ Narün ” (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), Zootaxa 4429 (3), pp. 589-594 : 591-593

[ Lycaena ] Argus Schiff. (Argyrognomon Bgstr.) f. naruena Courvoisier, 1913 ( figs. 10, 11 , 16D )

Courvoisier, 1913: 289, type locality: “aus Narün”.

At present this taxon is considered to belong to Plebejus idas (Linnaeus, 1761) ( Forster, 1936: 86) .

The type series contain 2 syntypes. To preserve the nomenclatural stability, it is necessary to designate the lectotype of this taxon. I designate this lectotype here, the male specimen ( figs. 10, 11 ), labelled: pink paper, printed “ TYPUS ”; pink paper, handwritten “Narün | 1909 Wisk.”; white paper, handwritten “F. naruena m. 1913”.

The other syntype specimen, female, I designate here as paralectotype.

There are a lot of pictures of European P. idas (see, for example, websites www.lepiforum.de, www.eurobutterflies.com etc.). I figure the Central Asiatic P. idas here ( fig. 13 ). If we compare the type specimen of P. idas naruena to European representatives of this species and to Central Asian samples, we can see that the type specimen of naruena doubtlessly belongs to the European populations of this species. It has thin marginal band on the wings upperside, very prominent black spots on the hindwing upperside between veins in marginal part, and wings underside not that bright as in Central Asian specimens.

Thus the taxon naruena must be considered as a synonym of the nominate P. idas : P. idas idas (Linnaeus, 1761) = P. idas naruena ( Courvoisier, 1913) , syn.n (type locality by the lectotype designation: Narün NE from Astrakhan between rivers Volga and Ural). By the same logic, the taxon, described from the nearly located “Sarepta” ( P. idas sareptensis Chapman, 1917 ) must be also considered as synonym of the nominate one: P. idas idas (Linnaeus, 1761) = P. idas sareptensis Chapman, 1917 , syn.n.; if the status of this taxon will be raised to the “real” subspecies rank, the name of L.G. Courvoisier has the priority.

Then, the last thing which must be clarified after removing taxon naruena from the Central Asia, is the status of Central Asian subspecies of P. idas . There are two names available to replace the name “ naruena ”: P. idas tshimgana ( Forster, 1936) , described from “mts. Bolshoi Tshimgan 1500–2000 m ” and P. idas nushibi Zhdanko, 2000 , described from “Kazachstan, Zailiisky Alatau Mts., Kaskelen Gorge, 1,500 m ”. Thus, two opinions can be applied: both taxa are the separate subspecies and inhabit West Tian-Shan and North and Inner Tian-Shan respectively, or the area of this species within the Tian-Shan mountains is solid, no different subspecies are present so the name for all the populations within these mountains is tshimgana according to the Principle of Priority. To make the final decision the comparative study of these populations is needed, which is out of boundaries of the present paper.

Figures

FIGURE 16. The designated lecotype labels. A: Lycaena phlaeas naruena (Courvoisier, 1911); B: Polyommatus icarus wiskotti (Courvoisier, 1911); C: Phengaris cyanecula naruena (Courvoisier, 1911); D: Plebejus idas naruena (Courvoisier, 1913).

FIGURES 1–15. Polyommatus, Plebejus, Phengaris and Lycaena specimens. 1, 2: Polyommatus venus (Staudinger, 1886), lectotype male, upperside (1), underside (2). 3: Phengaris cyanecula (Eversmann, 1848), male, Russia, Bashkortostan, Yantysh village, upperside (right side) and underside (left side). 4, 5: Polyommatus icarus wiskotti (Courvoisier, 1911), lectotype male, upperside (4), underside (5). 6: Phengaris cyanecula (Eversmann, 1848), male, Kyrgyzstan, Suusamyr valley, Sary-Kaiky gorge, upperside (right side) and underside (left side). 7, 8: P. cyanecula naruena (Courvoisier, 1911), paralectotype male, upperside (7), underside (8). 9, 12: P. cyanecula naruena (Courvoisier, 1911), lectotype female, upperside (9), underside (12). 10, 11: Plebejus idas naruena (Courvoisier, 1913), lectotype male, upperside (10), underside (11). 13: P. idas (Linnaeus, 1761), male, Kyrgyzstan, South shore of Issyk-Kul lake, Kichi-Dzhargylchak environs, upperside (left side), underside (right side). 14, 15: Lycaena phlaeas naruena (Courvoisier, 1911), lectotype male, upperside (14), underside (15).