Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta Grishin 2024

Additional specimens of Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta Grishin, 2024 confirm it as a species-level taxon Genomic analysis of Heliopetes Billberg, 1820 (type species Papilio niveus Cramer, 1775, which is a junior subjective synonym of Papilio arsalte Linnaeus, 1758) reveals four additional specimens of Heliopetes (Heliopetes) acuta Grishin, 2024 (type locality Mexico, Oaxaca, Candelaria Loxicha), all from the type locality and collected by E. C. Welling (Fig. 17 red), thus confirming that it is a species-level taxon and not an unusual single specimen. In all three trees, H. acuta is sister to the clade consisting of three species: Heliopetes (Heliopetes) lana Grishin, 2023 (type locality in Guatemala), Heliopetes (Heliopetes) alana (Reakirt, 1868) (type locality in Colombia), and Heliopetes (Heliopetes) chimbo Evans, 1953 (type locality in Ecuador: Chimbo), and, therefore, is the most distinct species in this group. Here, we illustrate male genitalia of H. acuta (Fig. 18) and they differ from those of H. lana, a species closest in distribution or possibly even sympatric with it (see figs. 302–303 in Zhang et al. (2023a) for its genitalia photographs), by a terminally rounder and flatter (shell-shaped in the dorsal half) harpe, which is not prominently turning inward and bears coarser serrations mostly along its dorsoposterior margin; a more robust ampulla; and slightly narrower, more separated uncus arms.