Chrysoritis lysander ( Pennington 1962 ), 2023

Heath, Alan, 2023, Chrysoritis Butler (Papilionoidea: Lycaenidae: Aphnaeinae) - Part III: An integrative taxonomic revision, Metamorphosis 34 (1), pp. 11-28 : 19-20

Chrysoritis lysander ( Pennington 1962) stat. rev.

Poecilmitis lysander Pennington 1962 .

Holotype: Ditsong NM. Type locality: Kamieskroon, Namaqualand Distr.

MPT: low, mid and submontane gullies. Host ant: unrecorded. Material from this study is from Kamiesberg and its foothills.

Taxonomy: Monophyletic in the COI tree (100% bootstrap). Sample specimens from Kamieskroon, formerly treated as C. pan lysander , are morphologically similar to C. azurius . However its closest taxon in the COI tree is not C. azurius but a C. aridimontis (sample AH07C 166 in mt clade 1), 12 mutational steps away in the network. Despite resembling C. azurius , the two species are well separated phylogenetically and geographically. Material from the Kamiesberg region, formerly treated as C. pan lysander , is returned to species status as Chrysoritis lysander stat. rev. Also, material taken from 2 km north of Eksteenfontein, Richtersveld and recently from near Oranjemund, southern Namibia (S. Braine) may also be this species.

Conservation status: LC.