Oeneis chryxus

• Main Authors: Andrew D. Warren, Shinichi Nakahara, Vladimir A. Lukhtanov, Kathryn M. Daly, Clifford D. Ferris, Nick V. Grishin, Martin Cesanek, Jonathan P. Pelham
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Nymphalidae; Oeneis; Oeneis chryxus; Ferris; Yukon; Subarctic; Alaska
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6069230; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6069230

Taxonomic status and distribution of Yukon-Alaska Oeneis chryxus Oeneis chryxus is widely distributed in Yukon Territory, with records from even and odd-numbered years, where it inhabits dry, open barrens and subarctic steppe (Ferris et al. 1983; Lafontaine & Wood 1997). Various authors have considered Yukon populations of O. chryxus to represent O. c. caryi (Layberry et al. 1998; Guppy & Shepard 2001), although Burdick (1958) noted that this is incorrect. The type specimen of O. c. caryi, as figured by Burdick (1958) and Warren et al. (2015), is markedly different than any material we have examined from Yukon Territory, and, other than the enlarged forewing ocelli, appears to fall within the normal range of variation seen in the western populations of O. c. calais. Further studies are needed to confirm the taxonomic status of O. c. caryi, although we believe O. c. caryi should probably be considered synonymous with O. c. calais; alternatively, if O. c. calais is considered to be a species-level taxon, O. c caryi might be considered its western subspecies, as implied by McDunnough (1934) and treated by Kondla (2010). Thus, the name O. c. caryi does not apply to populations of O. chryxus in northern British Columbia, Yukon Territory, or those barely entering eastern Alaska (see below). While the erection of a new subspecies name might be justifiable for these populations, we feel they are close enough to nominotypical O. chryxus in phenotype to tentatively associate them with that taxon. The similarity of COI sequences between Yukon and Rocky Mountain material to the south (British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Colorado) also supports this arrangement, given that barcodes from Yukon specimens are extremely similar or identical to those from further south in the Rocky Mountains. Oeneis chryxus was first reported from Alaska by Holland (1900), based on a single female taken at Eagle City, on 10 July 1899, by Reverend S. Hall Young. We have examined two male specimens from Eagle, one collected by Young in ...