A distinct species, Dodona formosana, detected in the Dodona eugenes species complex: clarification of the taxonomic status of the Punch butterfly in Taiwan

By

Wu, Li-Wei
Lin, Wen-Jie
Hsu, Yu-Feng

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

736

Pages

59-77

Subjects

endemism , male genitalia , Myrsinaceae , wing pattern

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.736.22062

 

Abstract

The Tailed Punch, Dodona eugenes, is widely distributed in East Asia with seven subspecies currently recognized. However, two of them, namely ssp. formosana and ssp. esakii found in Taiwan, are hard to distinguish from each other due to ambiguous diagnostic characters. In this study, their taxonomic status is clarified by comparing genitalia characters and phylogenetic relationships based on mitochondrial sequences, COI and COII (total 2211 bps). Our results show that there is no reliable feature to separate these two subspecies. Surprisingly we found that Dodona in Taiwan is more closely related to the Orange Punch, D. egeon, than to other subspecies of D. eugenes. Therefore, the following nomenclatural changes are proposed: Dodona eugenes formosana is revised to specific status as Dodona formosana Matsumura, 1919, stat. rev, and ssp. esakii is sunk to a junior synonym of Dodona formosana syn. n.