Natura Croatica Issue number: Natura Croatica, Vol. 25 No.1

Molekularni podaci nisu potvrdili grčkog plavca Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) aroaniensis (Brown, 1976) kao pripadnika faune Hrvatske

Authors: Leona Lovrenčić, Martina Podnar, Martina Šašić, Toni Koren, Nikola Tvrtković

Authors and affiliation

  • Leona Lovrenčić University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Martina Podnar Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
  • Martina Šašić Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
  • Toni Koren Croatian Herpetological Society - Hyla, Lipovac I, 7, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
  • Nikola Tvrtković Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The presence of the Grecian anomalous blue, Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) aroaniensis (Brown, 1976) in Croatia has been recently published based on external morphology of collected specimens. The aim of this study was to evaluate the credibility of these findings by using DNA barcoding approach as the species exhibit phenotypic variability and can easily be misidentified with morphologically similar species Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) ripartii. Therefore, we performed a molecular analysis of the mitochondrial gene for cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) of the samples previously published as P. aroaniensis from different localities in Croatia. The results showed that all analysed samples belong to P. ripartii. Additionally, all analysed samples from different Croatian localities (Mt. Mala Kapela, Mt. Lička Plješivica, Mt. Poštak, Mt. Troglav and Mt. Kamešnica) together with previously published population of P. ripartii from Mt. Mosor belong to the same Eurasian clade of P. ripartii.

Keywords

Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) ripartii, misidentification, Lycaenidae, Lepidoptera, COI, DNA barcoding