Morphology of the Male Genitalia in the Oriental Species of the Family Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera). Tribes Lycaenesthini and Polyommatini

Abstract

Musculature of the male genitalia is described for the first time for five Oriental species of two tribes of the subfamily Polyommatinae: Anthene emolus Godart, 1824, A. seltuttus (Röber, 1886) (Lycaenesthini), Una usta (Distant, 1886), Pithecops dionisius (Boisduval, 1832), and Catopyrops rita Grose-Smith, 1895 (Polyommatini). Apomorphies are revealed in the structure of the skeleton and muscles of the male genitalia for both Lycaenesthini (the vinculo-uncal position of the uncus depressors and splitting of the aedeagus protractors) and Polyommatini (splitting of the aedeagus retractors with shifting of the attachment site of one of them onto the lateral lobes of the tegumen). The latter character, previously described in the subtribe Polyommatina, is shown to have appeared at the very base of the phylogenetic lineage of the tribe Polyommatini. A presumed synapomorphy of Lycaenesthini and Polyommatini is described, namely the presence of the circumzonal sclerite of the aedeagus. Some characters of the male genitalia of Lycaenesthini possess plesiomorphic features and correspond to the ancestral ground plan of the entire lineage of Polyommatinae. New data on the muscle topography in the Oriental Polyommatinae are consistent with the molecular data on the phylogeny of this subfamily.