Telegonus mutius Plötz, 1882

Zhang, Jing, Cong, Qian, Shen, Jinhui & Grishin, Nick V., 2022, Taxonomic changes suggested by the genomic analysis of Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera), Insecta Mundi 2022 (921), pp. 1-135 : 11

Telegonus mutius Plötz, 1882 is a junior subjective synonym of Euriphellus phraxanor (Hewitson, 1876)

Considered since Evans (1952) a junior subjective synonym of Salatis cebrenus ( Cramer, 1777) (type locality Suriname), Telegonus mutius Plötz, 1882 (type locality Colombia) does not agree, according to its description, with the original illustration ( Cramer 1777) showing a female syntype of Papilio cebrenus . The description of T. mutius can be translated as “Margins of all wings smooth (i.e. not serrated), cell 1 of the forewing without hyaline points. … Forewing with a hyaline spot in the discal cell, one similar [spot] in cell 2, a slash in cell 3 and 2 small spots before the apex in cells 6 and 7. Hindwing [unmarked,] only with one brown, gray-core central moon and a row of such spots on the underside. Pale brown, palpi orange … Weymer [in litteris], 36 mm ” ( Plötz 1882c). Papilio cebrenus has a hyaline spot in the forewing cell 1, it also has additional hyaline spots between the discal spot and costa (i.e., discal cell spot continues to reach costa), and three small apical spots, not two. Moreover, as we suggest above, P. cebrenus is a species very close to (or the same as) Euriphellus euribates (Stoll, 1782) . Therefore, T.mutius is not the same species as E. cebrenus . Instead, we found that some females (for example, in ZMHB) currently identifiable as Euriphellus phraxanor (Hewitson, 1876) (type locality “ New Granada ”—likely referring to Colombia —and Panama: Chiriqui) perfectly match the T. mutius description, including the large size of the specimen (forewing length 36 mm). Indeed, nearly identical to each other large hyaline spots in forewing discal cell and cell CuA 1 -CuA 2, a hyaline “slash” in cell M 3 -CuA 1 and two subapical spots (in cells R 4 -R 5 and R 5 -M 1) are the only prominent dorsal markings on these females. Their ventral hindwing is marked with a central spot and a discal crescent of similar spots. These spots are mostly pale and encircled with dark scales, but can be viewed as brown with pale centers. Although the type specimens of T.mutius have not been located, the description is sufficient to place this taxon in synonymy with Euriphellus phraxanor , awaiting a detailed revision of the E. phraxanor complex that requires examination and sequencing of the primary types of these taxa.