Taxonomic Position and Status of Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) iphigenia (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from the Peloponnese, Southern Greece.

In our study we use a 690 bp fragment of the COI gene to analyze a taxon from southern Greece, usually treated as Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) iphigenia nonacriensis (Brown, 1977). The previous conclusions on taxonomy and nomenclature of P. (A.) iphigenia nonacriensis were not supported by molecular or cytological data, therefore the problem of identity of this taxon has remained unsolved. We found that with respect to COI haplotypes, P. (A.) iphigenia nonacriensis from Greece is similar to the studied populations of P. (A.) iphigenia (Herrich-Schäffer, 1847) from Turkey and Armenia. Thus, we confirm that the only Greek Agrodiaetus butterfly with blue wing coloration in males actually belongs to the species P. (A.) iphigenia.