Korb, Fric & Bartonova 2016. Parnassius charltonius paper

[Adam Cotton]

Recently published in Nota Lepidopterologica. Korb et al. 2016. Phylogeography of Koramius charltonius (Gray, 1853) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): a case of too many poorly circumscribed subspecies.

Abstract:
Koramius charltonius (Gray, 1853) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) is distributed in the mountains of Central Asia. We analysed genetic and phylogeographic patterns throughout the western part of its range using a mitochondrial marker (COI). We also analysed the wing pattern using multivariate statistics. We found that the species contains several unique haplotypes in the west and shared haplotypes in the east. The haplotype groups do not correspond to the wing pattern and also the described subspecies do not correspond to either the haplotypes or the groups circumscribed by the wing pattern. Currently, there are more than ten subspecies of K. charltonius in Central Asia; based on our analyses we suggest a reduction to only five of them. The following nomenclatural changes are applied: (1) K. charltonius aenigma Dubatolov & Milko, 2003, syn. n., K. charltonius sochivkoi Churkin, 2009, syn.n., and K. charltonius alrashid Churkin & Pletnev, 2012, syn. n. are new synonyms of K. charltonius romanovi (Grum-Grshimailo, 1885); (2) K. charltonius marusya Churkin & Pletnev, 2012, syn. n., K. charltonius eugenia Churkin, 2009, syn. n., K. charltonius anjuta Stshetkin & Kaabak, 1985, syn. n., and K. charltonius mistericus Kaabak, Sotchivko & Titov, 1996, syn. n. are new synonyms of K. charltonius vaporosus (Avinov, 1913); and (3) K. charltonius safronovi Korb, Shaposhnikov, Zatakovoy & Nikolaev, 2013, syn. n. is a new synonym of K. charltonius voigti (Bang-Haas, 1927).

Here's a link to the paper:

nl.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=7682

A pdf can be downloaded for free by clicking on the pdf link at the top of the page.

Adam.

[teinopalpus]

Many thanks Adam,

.. and because article is about Parnassius charltonius I will add Sergei Churkin paper from 2014 about dividing Parnassius charltonius to 2 species with separating Parnassius romanovi from P.charltonius.

Analyses of morphology and mitochondrial DNA reveal a deep split within Parnassius charltonius Gray, [1853](Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) by Sergei V. Churkin & François Michel

Link to paper : parnassius-davydovi.com/4-finalcharltonius_1.pdf

Jan

[Adam Cotton]

The Korb et al. paper states:

Recently Churkin and Michel (2014) sequenced a number of specimens of K. charltonius from various mountain ranges and they split the species into two separate species, K. charltonius sensu stricto and K. romanovi (Grum-Grshimailo, 1885). They also reassigned various subspecific names into these two species. However, we argue that their conclusions are unsupported by their own molecular data, since K. charltonius appears deeply paraphyletic in the published phylogenetic tree.


I note that the tree in Churkin and Michel, 2014 (Figure F3) was constructed using "Neighbour-Joining" analysis, which has been shown to be unreliable under some circumstances and is largely no longer used. See 'Advantages and disadvantages' near the bottom of the Wikipedia article here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbor_joining

Adam.

[nomad]

I am certainly no Parnassius expert. I see the authors of this paper have added a new genus name for this species "Koramius".  Now I quite understand that the experts will mention that those specialists see things we do not but I believe 95 per cent of collectors/ lepidopterists will ignore the new genus name. It is a great pity that there was not a "Code" that gave priority to genus names because anybody can change them, and there is an awful lot of confusion regarding which is the right one to use. 

[Adam Cotton]

Peter,

Koramius is not a new name, it was proposed by Moore (1902) for Doritis delphius, and is available as a genus name for that group of Parnassius species.

Personally I prefer to treat it as a subgenus, but as I have said elsewhere the treatment of generic group names depends on the author. If they prefer to regard it as a genus it is subjectively not incorrect, but in reality they should (and usually do) treat other equivalent groups in the same way for consistency.

The ICZN Code does give priority to the older genus group names, and as such Koramius is the oldest available name for the group that the current authors apply it to (ie not all species of Parnassius). There are a plethora of other genus group names available for other species groups, and each time authors use them they must use the senior available name according to the articles of the Code. There is actually another name with type species Parnassius charltonius which is Kailasius Moore (1902). Presumably they would have used that name if they had treated P. charltonius and delphius as belonging to separate genera.

Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

In case anyone is wondering how Priority is allocated for 2 names described in the same work (book or paper), there is no such thing as 'page priority', the first person who chooses one name over another gives that name priority under what is known as the First Reviser Principle.

Presumably someone included charltonius in Koramius, which would automatically give priority to Koramius over Kailasius when charltonius is included in the same generic group (genus or subgenus) as delphius.

Adam.