New record of the butterfly Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius) from Oman,with notes about phylogeographic patterns of E. cnejus and E. osiris (Hopffer) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

We document the occurrence of the Oriental butterfly species Euchrysops cnejus in northern Oman. It is very similar to E. osiris whose distribution extends from the Afrotropical region into Dhofar, southern Oman. Oman is thus the only country where both species co-occur. The two species differ in genitalia and in molecular data. We show that based on the COI marker, E. cnejus and E. osiris are sister species and the Oman populations of E. osiris are closely related to the population from continental Africa. Haplotype diversity is lower in E. cnejus, than in E. osiris. Genetic differences were found between the Australian, Oriental and Oman populations of E. cnejus but available data were not sufficient to clarify the origin of the Oman population.