Leptotes (butterfly)

Leptotes
Lang's short-tailed blue (Leptotes pirithous)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Subfamily:	Polyommatinae
Tribe:	Polyommatini
Genus:	Leptotes Scudder, 1876
Type species
Lycaena theonus Lucas, 1857
Diversity
29 species
Synonyms
Cyclyrius Butler, [1897] Langia Tutt, 1906 (non Moore, 1872: preoccupied) Raywardia Tutt, 1908 Syntarucoides Kaye, 1904 Syntarucus Butler, 1901

Leptotes is a butterfly genus in the family Lycaenidae. They are commonly known as zebra blues in reference to their zebra-striped undersides.

The genus Cyclyrius was recently synonymized with Leptotes and its two species were thus moved to this genus.^[1]

Species[]

The genus can be divided in several distinct geographic groups which often correspond to clades:^[1]

Afrotropical and Palaearctic species:

• Leptotes adamsoni Collins & Larsen, 1991 – Adamson's zebra blue
• Leptotes babaulti (Stempffer, 1935) – Babault's zebra blue
• Leptotes brevidentatus (Tite, 1958) – Tite's zebra blue
• Leptotes casca (Tite, 1958)
• Leptotes cassioides (Capronnier, 1889)
• Fric, Pyrcz & Wiemers, 2019
• Leptotes jeanneli (Stempffer, 1935)
• Leptotes mandersi (Druce, 1907)
• Leptotes marginalis (Stempffer, 1944) – black-bordered zebra blue
• Leptotes mayottensis (Tite, 1958)
• Leptotes pirithous (Linnaeus, 1767) – Lang's short-tailed blue, common zebra blue
• Leptotes pulcher (Murray, 1874) – beautiful zebra blue
• Libert, 2011
• Leptotes rabefaner (Mabille, 1877)
• Leptotes sanctithomae (Sharpe, 1893)
• Leptotes socotranus (Ogilvie-Grant, 1899)
• Leptotes webbianus (Brullé, 1839) – Canary blue

Indomalayan species:

• Leptotes plinius (Fabricius, 1793) – zebra blue, plumbago blue

Australasian species:

• (Godart, [1824])

Neotropical species:

• (Godman & Salvin, 1891)
• Tessmann, 1928
• (Dyar, 1913)
• Leptotes cassius (Cramer, [1775]) – Cassius blue, tropical striped blue
• Bálint & Johnson, 1995
• Bálint & Johnson, 1995
• Leptotes marina (Reakirt, 1868) – marine blue, striped blue
• (Wallengren, 1860) – Galapagos blue
• Kaye, 1931
• (Butler, 1881)

Leptotes pirithous

Footnotes[]

References[]

• Brower, Andrew V.Z. (2008): Tree of Life Web Project – Leptotes Scudder 1876. The Zebra Blues. Version of 2008-MAY-19. Retrieved 2009-NOV-29.
• Savela, Markku (2009): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms – Leptotes. Version of 2009-MAY-24. Retrieved 2009-NOV-29.
• Fric, Z.F., Maresova, J., Kadlec, T., Tropek, R., Pyrcz, T.W. & Wiemers, M., 2019. World travellers: phylogeny and biogeography of the butterfly genus Leptotes (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Systematic Entomology 44(3): 652–665. doi:10.1111/syen.12349

External links[]

Wikispecies has information related to Leptotes species and subspecies.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leptotes (Lycaenidae).

• Marine Blue, Leptotes marina at Butterflies and Moths of North America
• Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius at Butterflies and Moths of North America
• Leptotes at Markku Savela's website on Lepidoptera