Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5693 No. 2: 17 Sept. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-09-17
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.2.9
Page range: 283-290
Abstract views: 21
PDF downloaded: 0

First record of the Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) species group in Europe with description of a new subspecies (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae)

Museum of Natural History; St. Alexis Hermitage; Yaroslavl Obl. ; Novoalexeevka; 4-1; 152049
Molodezhnaya str.; 6-129; Moscow; Russia
Department of Entomology; Faculty of Biology; Lomonosov Moscow State University; Leninskie gory; GSP-1; korp. 12; Moscow; 119991; Russia; Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution; Russian Academy of Sciences; Leninsky prospekt 33; Moscow; 119071; Russia
Lepidoptera biogeography Caspian lowland desert ecoregion genitalia morphology taxonomy Volga Region

Abstract

Previously unknown geographically isolated populations of recently described species from northwestern Kazakhstan, P. karinae Churkin & Krupitsky 2025, are discovered in Astrakhan Oblast, Lower Volga Region, Russia. A new subspecies, P. karinae artifex ssp. nov., is described, being the first record of the mostly Central Asian desert P. christophi (Staudinger, 1874) species group from Russia and Europe. Compared to the nominotypical subspecies, the new subspecies differs in grey ventral side of the wings, bright reddish elements of the submarginal pattern of the ventral side of the wings, darker dorsal side of the wings in males and brown dorsal side of the wings lacking blue colouration in females.

 

References

  1. Churkin, S.V. & Krupitsky, A.V. (2024) The review of the Plebejus argyrognomon (Bergstrasser, [1779]) species group from the East Palaearctic. Part 1: Valuable characters of the male genitalia, Plebejus mongolicus (Rühl, [1893]), P. pseudaegon ussuricus (Forster, 1936) and P. transbaicalensis (Kurentzov, 1970), stat. nov. (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), with some notes. Acta Biologica Sibirica, 10, 1229–1258. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13989525
  2. Churkin, S.V. & Krupitsky, A.V. (2025) Taxonomic review of the Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) species group from Central Asia with the descriptions of new taxa (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Acta Biologica Sibirica, 11, 633–662. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15332744
  3. Churkin, S.V. & Pletnev, V.A. (2012) Taxonomic notes on the Plebeius christophi complex (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) with descriptions of new taxa. Atalanta, 43 (1/2), 108–113.
  4. Churkin, S.V. & Zhdanko, A.B. (2004) А new species of blues, Plebejus murza sp. n., from East Tian-Shan (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Helios, 5, 60–63.
  5. Churkin, S.V. & Zhdanko, A.B. (2008) New taxa of blues from Tian Shan (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Atalanta, 39 (1–4), 297–309.
  6. Churkin, S.V., Kolesnichenko, K.A. & Yakovlev, R.V. (2019) Two new taxa of Plebejus Kluk, 1780 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from the Gobi desert, Mongolia. Zootaxa, 4695 (1), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4695.1.3
  7. Dinerstein, E., Olson, D., Joshi, A., Vynne, C., Burgess, N.D., Wikramanayake, E., Hahn, N., Palminteri, S., Hedao, P., Noss, R. & Hansen, M. (2017) An ecoregion-based approach to protecting half the terrestrial realm. BioScience, 67 (6), 534–545. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix014
  8. Krupitsky, A.V. & Li, Z. (2024) Notes on the Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) species group of China, with a description of a new species from the Eastern Tian Shan. Russian Entomological Journal, 33 (1), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.15298/rusentj.33.1.10
  9. Krupitsky, A.V., Pljushtch, I.G. & Pak, O.V. (2015) Taxonomic notes on the genus Satyrium Scudder, 1876 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) of Afghanistan with description of two new taxa. Zootaxa, 3985 (3), 421–431. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3985.3.6
  10. Krupitsky, A., Pljushtch, I. & Skrylnik, Yu. (2021) A new species of the Plebejus samudra (Moore, 1874) (Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae) group from Afghanistan. Zoology in the Middle East, 67 (2), 152–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/09397140.2021.1883643
  11. Kurbanov, R., Murray, A., Thompson, W., Svistunov, M., Taratunina, N. & Yanina, T. (2021) First reliable chronology for the Early Khvalynian Caspian Sea transgression in the Lower Volga River valley. Boreas, 50, 134–146. https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12478
  12. Lobacheva, D.M., Badyukova, E.N. & Makshaev, R.R. (2023) Sedimentary characteristics of Baer knolls deposits in the Volga River Delta. Geomorfologiya i Paleogeografiya, 54 (3), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.31857/S2949178923030052
  13. Lukhtanov, V.A., Nazari, V., ten Hagen, W., Naderi, A., Gagarina, A.V. & Krupitsky, A.V. (2015) Molecular Taxonomy and Biogeography of the Copper Butterfly Genus Phoenicurusia and Genus-Level Classification of the Subfamily Lycaeninae (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Zoologica Scripta, 54 (5), 628–648. https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12731
  14. Miller, L.D. (1970) Nomenclature of wing veins and cells. Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera, 8 (2), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.333547
  15. Talavera, G., Lukhtanov, V., Pierce, N. & Vila, R. (2022) DNA Barcodes Combined With Multilocus Data of Representative Taxa Can Generate Reliable Higher-Level Phylogenies. Systematic Biology, 71, 382–395. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syab038
  16. Yakovlev, R.V. (2012) Checklist of Butterflies (Papilionoidea) of the Mongolian Altai Mountains, including descriptions of new taxa. Nota Lepidopterologica, 35, 51–96.
  17. Zhdanko, A.B. & Churkin, S.V. (2001) A review of the Plebejus christophi complex (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from the Central Asia with description of new taxa. Helios, 2, 50–73.
  18. Zhdanko, A.B. & Churkin, S.V. (2004) А new species of blues, Plebejus kapanovi sp. n., from East Kazakhstan (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Helios, 5, 64–67.

How to Cite

Churkin, S.V., Lekarev, G.A. & Krupitsky, A.V. (2025) First record of the Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) species group in Europe with description of a new subspecies (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Zootaxa, 5693 (2), 283–290. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.2.9