The nomenclatural status of Phoenicurusia Verity, 1943 (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Lycaeninae)

Roger (Ruggero) Verity published Phoenicurusia as a subgenus of Lycaena Fabricius, on p. 21 of vol. 2 of Farfalle Diurne d’Italia (1943), since in the male genitalia the falces were bent like an acute elbow after one-quarter of their length, rather than smoothly curved as they are in species of the subgenus Lycaena. Verity contextually designated Polyommatus phoenicurus Lederer, 1870 (Locus Typicus: [LT] ‘Hadschyabad’ [N. Iran]) as the Type Species [TS] of Phoenicurusia and described the male genitalia of phoenicurus Lederer, 1870, “razza” scintillans Christoph, 1887, labelled as from Germab (Askhabad [Turkmenistan]), and those of Polyommatus dimorphus Staudinger, 1881, labelled as from Passo Taldyk [Kyrgyzstan: Alai Mts]. Although Verity included both species in his new subgenus, he also highlighted an important difference existing between them, since, contrary to those of dimorphus, the genitalia of phoenicurus were ‘enormous’ with respect to the size of the butterfly. Both the aedeagus and the valvae were extremely elongate, much more than those of dimorphus and the latter were terminally toothed.