Phylogenetic systematics of the genus Lasaia Bates, 1868 (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea: Riodinidae)

Lasaia Bates is a Neotropical genus with at least 17 species, distributed from southeastern U.S.A. (Texas) to South America (Argentina). Although some morphological reviews and molecular phylogenetic analyses have been conducted on a few species, no comprehensive study with broad taxonomic sampling has yet been carried out for the genus Lasaia. Here, we analyzed adult morphology traits and distributional data of 12 of 17 species of the recognized species, presenting a phylogenetic hypothesis based on 82 morphological characters, and seven outgroup species. Our study supports the monophyly of Lasaia, with the exclusion of Inkana cutisca and I. incoides. These two taxa were formerly included in Lasaia but were recently transferred to the newly proposed genus Inkana based on genomic evidence; however, due to their recent taxonomic history, we included them in our analysis for comparative purposes using morphological data. We propose that L. maria anna is a subjective synonym of L. maria; we recognize L. peninsularis (stat. nov.), originally described by Clench (1972) as a subspecies of Lasaia sula, as a valid species. We also reclassify L. agesilas callaina as a subspecies of L. agesilas (stat. rev.) and propose L. oaxacensis as a subjective synonym of L. sessilis. Finally, we propose that L. cola is a subjective synonym of L. sula.