Male Genitalia Muscles of the Blues’ Tribe Miletini (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae: Miletinae)

The skeleto-muscular characters of the male genitalia in three species of the tribe Miletini have been compared in order to establish its phylogenetic position and to clarify the relationships between the genera. The muscles of the male genitalia are described for the first time in Allotinus substrigosus (Moore, 1884), Miletus chinensis C. Felder, 1862, and Megalopalpus zymna (Westwood, 1851). The tribe Miletini possesses a set of unique characters setting it apart from most of the remaining taxa of Miletinae, namely differentiation of the depressors of uncus and formation of an unpaired valvar-phallic organ, previously unknown in Lepidoptera. Muscles of the apophysar system of the male abdominal segment VIII, a unique structure present in Lepidoptera, are described for the first time. Similarities and differences in the functional organization of the genitalia between the indigenous African and the Oriental species of the tribe Miletini have been revealed.