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Abstract
DNA data consisting of a short segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI, or cox1), the standard barcode segment, have previously provided evidence that the butterfly taxon Telegonus fulgerator (Hesperiidae: Eudaminae) is actually comprised of a complex of at least 10 cryptic species presently referred to as the ‘fulgerator complex’. Because the 10 putative species, each with a type specimen and type locality, were diagnosed solely on the basis of nucleotide characters of the COI barcode, and because a barcode is not available from the type of the nominal taxon, the naming of the 10 species has rendered T. fulgerator a nomen dubium. Here we provide an historical background on the nomenclature of T. fulgerator, and propose a neotype in order to stabilize a name that has been in use for almost 250 years. We also summarize the few data available on geographic distributions and probable dispersal scenarios of several of the cryptic species of the fulgerator complex based on publicly available barcodes.
Acknowledgements
We thank Fred Roosli, Margie Roosli, Wendy Moore, Mike Morrissey, and Therese Ann Markow for their help with this project. Trini Hernández Mendoza provided valuable assistance in the field. We also thank Richard C. Brusca for his comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of the manuscript.
This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) under Grant CB–180385 to Dr Markow and funds from the Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo (CIAD).
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Supplemental data
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2020.1758825.
Associate Editor: Andrew Brower