Species delimitation and phylogenetic relationships among some morpho-species belonging to Thymelicus Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) from eastern Anatolia of Türkiye

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Taxonomic studies combining morphological and molecular characters have become increasingly important in recent years for estimating species diversity and evolutionary relationships. The presented study includes the result of the morphological and molecular analyses of Thymelicus Hübner, 1819 (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) specimens collected from Bitlis, Hakkari, Malatya, Tunceli, and Van provinces and preserved in the CESA collection between 2015 and 2022. Based on morphological examinations, the appearance and male/female genitalia of Thymelicus butterflies were determined and four morphological species were recorded: Thymelicus sylvestris (Poda, 1761), T. lineola (Ochsenheimer, 1808), T. hyrax (Lederer, 1861) and T. novus (Reverdin, 1916). Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase-I gene (COXI) sequences, used as a universal barcode, were obtained for the first time from Eastern Anatolian populations, and comprehensive evolutionary algorithms were used to determine the species diversity of the genus and understand their phylogenetic relatedness to congeners. The results showed that the taxa T. sylvestris, T. lineola, T. hyrax, and T. novus are separate species, but some T. acteon populations are closer to T. christi populations than to their morphological counterparts, and similarly, some T. lineola populations are closer to T. novus populations. This situation suggests that the elongated branch lines of the T. acteon and T. lineola main clades, due to the high genetic diversity of populations clustered in subclades, may indicate putative species.