Study On The Morphological Classification And Molecular Phylogeny Of The Genus Of Lepidoptera (Lepidoptera: Lepidoptera) And Its

Ahlbergia was established by Byrx in 1946, and the type species is Lycaena ferrea(Butler, 1866). Novosatsuma was established by Johnson, and the type species is Novosatsuma monstrabila Johnson, 1992. Cissatsuma was established by Johnson, and the type species is Satsuma albilinea(Riley, 1939). Three of them are belonged to Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae, Theclinae, Eumaeini. They have a close relationship and its common name called the Palearctic “Elfin” butterflies, including 43 species over the world, 40 of which from China. The morphology of species in the “Elfin” butterflies is similar. Using the both sexes genitalia characters is one of useful method to tell different species from each other. Although the research of the Palearctic“elfin” butterflies began relatively early, it has been mainly concentrated on the morphological classification, the fauna distribution and new species reports. There are still many problems remaining in Taxonomy. Combining the molecular technology and the traditional morphological classification, we constructed molecular phylogenetic trees on the“elfin”butterflies at the first time, focusing on the diversity and changes on molecular level. It is our aim to provide some references on molecular phylogenetic research of the Palearctic“elfin” butterflies.There are 13 species, 138 specimens of the Palearctic “elfin” butterflies were examined. We used the mitochondrial genes Cytochrome Oxidase I(COI) to sequence them and all the sequences were analyzed by some molecular software. Combining with some outgroups from Theclinae, we constructed the phylogenetic trees under the methods of Neighbor joining(NJ), and Bayesian inference(BI). Our aim is to explore whether we can use the fragment of mitochondrial genes COI as a DNA barcode to identify the in the Palearctic“elfin”butterflies. After that, we discussed their phylogenetic relationship and taxonomic status.Based on the analysis of the mt DNA COI sequence, the main conclusions of my study are summed as the following:1. The molecular distance is large enough to identifydifferent Palearctic“elfin” species. The unknown species Ahlbergia sp. is seemed to be a new species.2. A new species complex should be established and named by Ahlbergia frivaldszkyi species complex, instead of the ferrea group and the frivaldszkyi species complex.3. Ahlbergia prodiga may not have close relationship with Ahlbergia circe. We need more specimens to further comfirm in the future study.4. The Palearctic "elfin" butterflies may have more close relationship with Callophrys than the other members of tribe Eumaeini. We suggest to establish a new tribe for them, including genus Callophrys(Genera Ahlbergia, Novosatsuma and Cissatsuma are placed as synonyms of it.).