Comparison of the evolution of the male skeleto-muscular genitalia system of the subtribe Polyommatina (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) in the faunas of the Old World and New World

Comparison of the morphological evolution of the two biogeographic groups of the subtribe Polyommatina, the Old World and the New World ones, is carried out for the first time. Muscles of the male genitalia of the South American species Nabokovia cuzquenha Bálint et Lamas, 1997; Hemiargus hanno (Stoll, [1790]); Hemiargus ramon (Dognin, 1887); Itylos nodo (Bálint et Johnson, 1995); I. pelorias (Weymer, 1890) and I. pacis (Draudt 1921) are described in detail. On the background of the profound similarity of the male genitalia muscles of the subtribe Polyommatina between the faunas of the Old World and New World, a clear autapomorphy of the species of the genus Hemiargus is found—shift of the attachment of the secondary retractors of aedeagus, m7(6)b, from the alulae on the sagum, a unique skeletal structure near the aedeagus in South American Polyommatina. A parallel appearance of this character within the South American clade is speculated. An independent and simultaneous splitting of the intravalvar muscles m5(7) in the Neotropical and Holarctic lineages of the subtribe Polyommatina after their divergence is described.