Plebejus

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Panorpida
Cladus: Amphiesmenoptera
Ordo: Lepidoptera
Subordo: Glossata
Cladus: Coelolepida
Cladus: Myoglossata
Cladus: Neolepidoptera
Infraordo: Heteroneura
Cladus: Eulepidoptera
Cladus: Ditrysia
Cladus: Apoditrysia
Cladus: Obtectomera
Superfamilia: Papilionoidea

Familia: Lycaenidae
Subfamilia: Polyommatinae
Tribus: Polyommatini
Genus: Plebejus
Subgenera: Lycaeides

Species: (40), [see Talavera, et al., 2013]
P. aegina – P. agnata – P. alizadehorum – P. anikini – P. anna – P. argiva – P. argus – P. argyrognomon – P. bergi – P. caspica – P. choltagi – P. christophi – P. chrisreai – P. cleobis – P. dzhizaki – P. eversmanni – P. fridayi – P. fyodor – P. ganssuensis – P. germani – P. idas – P. kwaja – P. lepidus – P. maidantagi – P. maracandicus – P. melissa – P. mongolicus – P. noah – P. nushibi – P. planorum – P. pseudaegon – P. qinghaiensis – P. rogneda – P. roxane – P. samudra – P. samuelis – P. seanconneryi – P. shuroabadica – P. sinicus – P. subsolanus – P. tancrei – P. tillo – P. tomyris – P. transcaucasicus – P. uiguricus

Other Plebejus taxa:
P. aleremiticus – P. arpa – P. bellieri – P. callaghani – P. hishikawai
Name

Plebejus, Kluk, 1780

Type species: Papilio argus Linnaeus, 1758
Synonymy

Plebeius [sic] Kluk, 1780.
Plebejus Kluk, 1802.
Rusticus Hübner, [1806]. Synonymy in Talavera et al., 2012.
Lycoena [sic] Nicholl, 1901. Synonymy in Talavera et al., 2012.
Lycaeides Hübner, [1919]. Synonymy in Talavera et al., 2012.

References

Bálint, Zs.; C.S. Guppy; N.G. Kondla; K. Johnson & Ch.J. Durden, 2001: Plebeius Kluk, 1780 or Plebejus Kluk, 1802? (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Folia Entomologica Hungarica 62: 177–184. Full article
Balint, Zs. & Karbalaye, A. 2020. Plebejus alizadehorum sp. n. from Western Iran (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae: Polyommatini). Caucasian Entomological Bulletin 16(2): 329–334. Full article (PDF). Reference page.
Churkin, S.V., Kolesnichenko, K.A. & Yakovlev, R.V. 2019. Two new taxa of Plebejus Kluk, 1780 (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from the Gobi desert, Mongolia. Zootaxa 4695(1): 045–058. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4695.1.3 Paywall. Reference page.
Churkin, S.V. & V.A. Pletnev, 2012: Taxonomic notes on the Plebeius christophi (Staudinger, 1874) complex with descriptions of new taxa (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Atalanta 43: 108–113
Kluk, K., (1780): Zwierzat historyi naturalney Poczatki i gospodarstwo, 4. – Warsaw, Xiezy Piiarów, [01] + 502 pp + 4 double plates. ZooBankReference page.
Kluk, K., (1802): Zwierzat historyi naturalney Poczatki igospodarstwo, second edition. Vol. 4. – Warsaw. Poland, J. K. Moceci I Rzeczypospolitry u XX, Scholarium Pjarum, l01] + 500 pp + 4 double plates. Reference page.
Korb, S.K. & Bolshakov, L.V. 2011. A catalogue of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoformes) of the former USSR. Second edition, reformatted and updated. Eversmannia, Supplement 2. Abstract. Reference page.
Linnaeus, C., 1758. Systema Naturae, Classis V. Insecta edn 10, 824 pp. Stockholm.
Stradomsky, B.V. 2005. [Taxonomy of allied species Plebeius argyrognomon (Bergsträsser, [1779]), P. maracandicus (Erschoff, 1874) and P. caspicus (Forster, 1936) stat. n. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae).] Caucasian Entomological Bulletin 1(1): 81–84. [In Russian]. PDF. Reference page.
Stradomsky, B.V. & Arzanov, Yu.G. 2006. [Preimaginal stages of Plebeius caspicus (Forster, 1936) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae).] Caucasian Entomological Bulletin 2(2): 218. [In Russian]. PDF. Reference page.
Talavera, G., Lukhtanov, V.A., Pierce, N.E. & Vila, R., 2013. Establishing criteria for higher-level classification using molecular data: the systematics of Polyommatus blue butterflies (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Cladistics 29(2): 166–192. Reference page.
Weidenhoffer, Z., 2002: New records of blue butterflies of the subfamily Polyommatinae from Iran (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Entomologische Zeitschrift 112(3): 74–77. Reference page.
Yakovlev, R.V. 2012. Checklist of Butterflies (Papilionoidea) of the Mongolian Altai Mountains, including descriptions of new taxa. Nota Lepidopterologica 35(1): 51-96. PDF. Reference page.
Zhdanko, A.B., 2001. A new species of blues, Plebejus churkini sp. n. (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) from Inner Tian-Shan. Helios 2: 74-78. Reference page.
Zhdanko, A.B., 2003: A new species of the Lycaenid genus Plebejus Klul (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)from Uzbekistan. Entomological Review, 83 (8): 959–960

Plebejus is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae. Its species are found in the Palearctic and Nearctic realms.
Taxonomy

As a result of studies of molecular phylogenetics, numerous species that were included in Plebejus by some authors at the beginning of the 21st century have now been moved to separate genera again. These species may be found in Afarsia, Alpherakya, Agriades, Aricia, Eumedonia, Icaricia, Kretania, Maurus, Pamiria, Patricius, Plebejidea, Plebulina, and Rueckbeilia.
Species

Species include:[1]

The ardis species-group:

Plebejus eversmanni (Lang, 1884) Kopet-Dagh, Ghissar, Darvaz, Pamirs-Alai, Tian-Shan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan
Plebejus baroghila (Tytler, 1926) Himalayas
Plebejus firuskuhi (Forster, 1940) Afghanistan
Plebejus kwaja (Evans, 1932) Baluchistan

The argus species-group:

Plebejus aegidion (Gerhard, 1851) Central Asia
Plebejus argus (Linnaeus, 1758) – silver-studded blue

The idas species-group (a.k.a. subgenus Lycaeides):

Plebejus agnata (Rühl, 1895)
Plebejus argyrognomon (Bergsträsser, [1779]) – Reverdin's blue
Plebejus pseudaegon (Butler, [1882]) Ussuri, North China, North Korea, Japan
Plebejus sinica (Forster, 1936) Sichuan
Plebejus maracandica (Erschoff, 1874) Russia, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, Magadan. Mongolia, Kamchatka
Plebejus caspica (Forster, 1936) South Urals
Plebejus lepidus Zhdanko, 2000 Kazakhstan
Plebejus uiguricus Zhdanko, 2000 ltai, Saur, Tarbagatai Mts., Dzhungarsky Alatau
Plebejus mongolicus Rühl, [1893] Transbaikalia, Amur, Mongolia
Plebejus baldur (Hemming, 1934) Kurdistan, Levant
Plebejus bellieri (Oberthür, 1910) Corsica
Plebejus argiva (Staudinger, 1886) Kazakhstan, Alai
Plebejus christophi (Staudinger, 1874) – small jewel blue
Plebejus anikini Yakovlev, 2012 Mongolia
Plebejus germani Yakovlev, 2012 Mongolia
Plebejus roxane (Grum-Grshimailo, 1887) Tajikistan, Afghanistan
Plebejus idas (Linnaeus, 1761) – Idas blue or northern blue
Plebejus ganssuensis (Grum-Grshimailo, 1891) Kuku-Noor, China
Plebejus nushibi Zhdanko, 2000 Kazakhstan
Plebejus calliopis (Boisduval, 1832) Alps, boreal Europe and Transcaucasia to Russian Far East and Kamchatka
Plebejus anna (Edwards, 1861) – Anna's blue
Plebejus melissa (Edwards, 1873) – Melissa blue or orange-bordered blue
Plebejus fridayi (Chermock, 1945) Oregon
Plebejus nevadensis (Oberthür, 1910) Iberia
Plebejus tomyris (Grum-Grshimailo, 1890) Amur
Plebejus samudra (Moore, [1875]) Northwest India, Hindu Kush
Plebejus rogneda (Grum-Grshimailo, 1890) Kashgar, Darvaz, Pamirs, Transalai
Plebejus subsolanus (Eversmann, 1851) Transbaikalia, Amur, Ussuri, Mongolia, Korea, Japan.
Plebejus iburiensis (Butler, [1882]) Japan
Plebejus cleobis (Bremer, 1861) Siberia, Altai, Transbaikalia, Russian Far East, Amur, Ussuri, Japan

Ungrouped:

Plebejus sharga Churkin, 2004 Mongolia
Plebejus shuroabadica (Shchetkin, 1963) Tajikistan
Plebejus dzhizaki Zhdanko, 2000 Uzbekistan
Plebejus bergi Kusnezov, 1908 Kazakhstan
Plebejus noah (Herz, 1900) Turan
Plebejus qinghaiensis (Murayama, 1992)
Plebejus hishikawai (Yoshino, 2003) Tibet
Plebejus callaghani Carbonell & Naderi, 2007 Iran
Plebejus choltagi (Zhdanko & Churkin, 2001)
Plebejus fyodor Hsu, Bálint & Johnson, 2000
Plebejus maidantagi Zhdanko & Churkin, 2001
Plebejus tillo Zhdanko & Churkin, 2001
Plebejus churkini Zhdanko, 2001 Tian-Shan
Plebejus exterius Zhdanko, 2001 Tian-Shan
Plebejus zhdankoi Churkin, 2002 Tian-Shan
Plebejus mellarius Churkin & Zhdanko, 2008 Kyrgyzstan
Plebejus arpa (Churkin & Pletnev, 2012) Kyrgyzstan
Plebejus aleremiticus (Churkin & Pletnev, 2012) Tadjikistan

References
Savela, Markku. "Plebejus Kluk, 1780". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved August 10, 2019.