Phengaris is a genus of gossamer-winged butterflies in the subfamily Polyommatinae. Commonly, these butterflies are called large blues, which if referring to a particular species is P. arion, a species resident in Europe and some parts of Asia.


Underside of the Large Blue (P. arion), formerly in Maculinea. Rabastens-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées, France, 2009.
Phengaris nowadays includes the genus Maculinea. The type species of the latter was the Alcon Blue ("M." alcon), which is less closely related to most of the other supposed members of Maculinea than the old Phengaris species are, and hence the two genera are merged to form a monophyletic group. Alternatively, Maculinea could be restricted to the one or two species of "alcon" blues, and the rest of it be separated as a new genus. But this would mean to maintain two very small genera, which is generally avoided by modern taxonomists. As Phengaris is the older name, it thus replaces Maculinea.

Maculinea was alternatively considered to be a subgenus of Glaucopsyche. But while Glaucopsyche and Phengaris (including Maculinea) are certainly close relatives, they are unlikely to be that close.[citation needed]

The most recently discovered species in the genus is P. xiushani, first reported in 2010 and found in undisturbed forested mountains, unlike all the other members which live in grasslands over their entire range of distribution.

Species

The species, listed in the presumed phylogenetic sequence from the most ancestral to the most apomorphic, are:

Basal group (Maculinea sensu stricto)

Phengaris alcon – Alcon Blue, Alcon Large Blue
Phengaris alcon arenaria – Dutch Alcon Blue (extinct)
Phengaris rebeli – Mountain Alcon Blue (may belong in P. alcon)
Phengaris sensu stricto

Phengaris daitozana (Wileman, 1908)
Phengaris albida (Leech, 1893)
Phengaris atroguttata – Great Spotted Blue
Phengaris xiushani – Xiushan's Large Blue (Wang & Settele, 2010)
Other "Maculinea"

Phengaris kurentzovi (Sibatani, Saigusa & Hirowatari, 1994)
Phengaris kurentzovi kurentzovi North China and Korea
Phengaris kurentzovi daurica Dubatolov, 1999 Transbaikalia
Phengaris nausithous – Dusky Large Blue
Phengaris ogumae (Matsumura, 1910) (tentatively placed here)[citation needed]
Phengaris ogumae ogumae Japan
Phengaris ogumae doii (Matsumura, 1928) Kuriles
Phengaris teleius – Scarce Large Blue
Phengaris cyanecula (Eversmann, 1848)
Phengaris cyanecula cyanecula Mongolia
Phengaris cyanecula obscurior (Staudinger, 1901) Tian-Shan
Phengaris cyanecula taras (Fruhstorfer, 1915) Alay Mountains
Phengaris cyanecula ussuriensis (Sheljuzhko, 1928) Amur Oblast, Ussuri
Phengaris arion – Large Blue
Phengaris ligurica (Wagner, 1904) (may belong in P. arion)
Phengaris takamukui
Phengaris arionides – Greater Large Blue
Incertae sedis

Phengaris xiaheana (Murayama, 1919)
^ See Brower (2008) and the references in Savela (2006, 2008)
^

source - Wikipedia