Dispersal, fragmentation, and isolation shape the phylogeography of the European lineages of Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) ripartii (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

Polyommatus ripartii is a biogeographically and taxonomically poorly understood species of butterfly with a
scattered distribution in Europe. Recently, it has been shown that this species includes several European endemic
and localized taxa (galloi, exuberans, agenjoi) that were previously considered species and even protected, a result
that poses further questions about the processes that led to its current distribution. We analysed mitochondrial
DNA and the morphology of P. ripartii specimens to study the phylogeography of European populations. Three
genetically differentiated but apparently synmorphic lineages occur in Europe that could be considered evolutionarily
significant units for conservation. Their strongly fragmented and counterintuitive distribution seems to be the
result of multiple range expansions and contractions along Pleistocene climatic oscillations. Remarkably, based on
the 79 specimens studied, these genetic lineages do not seem to extensively coexist in the distributional mosaic,
a phenomenon most evident in the Iberian Peninsula. One of the important gaps in the European distribution of
P. ripartii is reduced by the discovery of new Croatian populations, which also facilitate a better understanding of
the biogeography of the species.