Vacciniina optilete
Agriades optilete
Additional German names: Moor-Heidelbeeren-Bläuling.
Note: in their analysis of Polyommatini relationships Talavera et al. (2013)
use a concept of defining genera as monophyletic groups that have a
certain minimum age (about 4-5 million years). While this is
scientifically unproblematic, it has some severe implications for
species identification, because it lumps together morphologically
divergent species as long as they belong to a monophyletic group that is
4-5 million years old. This also led Talavera et al. (2013)
to subsume the species of Vacciniina and Albulina under a more
inclusive genus Agriades. I note that Agriades, Vacciniina and Albulina
as they are used here in DEpository are all monophyletic in the analysis
by Talavera et al. (2013)
and they are combined under Agriades only because their separation from
a common ancestor is younger than 4-5 million years. I agree that
genera should be monophyletic groups, but I argue that they should not
be defined by their age, but by their morphology. Age is always
hypothetical only and may change with the next phylogenetic study. And,
more importantly, age is not a character that can be seen in the
specimen, and thus a classification that is based on age does not help
in species identification. I believe that natural classifications that
at the same time help in species identification are more useful than
natural classifications alone. Therefore, I do not accept the lumping of
Agriades, Albulina and Vacciniina and retain the nominal species
Papilio orbitulus in the genus Albulina.
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