Chrysoritis zonarius (Riley 1938)

Phasis zeuxo zonarius Riley 1938: 239.

Holotype: NHM, London. Type locality: Nr. Melkbos Strand.

Similar to but smaller than C. zeuxo, its putative daughter species. Univoltine. Host ant Crem. peringueyi and host plant Osteospermum incanum.

Juvenile stages Figs. 13 & 7A in HEA23, and Fig. 4 here.

Conservation status of C. z. zonarius: LC.

Taxonomy: Chrysoritis zeuxo renders C. zonarius paraphyletic in the COI and EF trees (in the CAD and H3 trees, their phyletic relationship is unclear). Although there are no recent confirmed records of C. zeuxo and C. zonarius occurring sympatrically, there are accounts of them being sympatric in recent history (Cottrell, 1978: 55) but these accounts are ambiguous and difficult to verify, so it is unclear whether their distributions currently overlap, or did so in the recent past. Here, we regard them as potentially sympatric currently or in the recent past. The two taxa have maintained differences in facies and behaviour (Woodhall, 2020: 234; C. zonarius preferring to stay very close to its host plant) as well as ecology (different host ants and host plants) while being sympatric. It is, however, possible that the smaller size of C. zonarius may be due to developmental plasticity resulting from poorer nutritional quality of its host plant (A. Heath, pers. obs). The two taxa likely diverged recently and a subspecies designation for each might also be a reasonable call. However, we believe that their multifaceted differences maintained in sympatry point more to full than to partial reproductive isolation (see Species and Subspecies Concepts in Materials and Methods). Thus they each remain as separate species, C. zeuxo and C. zonarius. Conservation status of C. zonarius zonarius: LC.