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This volume, the twentieth of the series Guide to the Butterflies of the Palearctic Region and the fifth about the Satyrinae subfamily, deals with three genera in the tribe Satyrini: Satyrus, Minois, and Hipparchia. They are widely distributed in the Palearctic region, quite popular and the object of much attention among lepidopterologists. However, despite the very rich dedicated literature, these butterflies, and in particular Hipparchia and Satyrus, maintain large areas of taxonomic ambiguity. Distinguished scientists used the term "bad species" to characterize species of the genus Hipparchia as taxonomic units that do not conform to criteria used to delimit species.
To a broad critical look, these butterflies seem to show an excess of taxonomic over-splitting. The analysis of DNA barcode sequences, based on the mitochondrial gene COI, that in other lepidopterans provided valuable taxonomic suggestions, has not shown particular utility in these two genera and in Minois as well. The authors made an effort to gather the available evidence to outline a taxonomic revision in line with a biological species concept. Based on previous work, the authors have already tested the strength of the multidimensional approach; therefore, also for this issue, they integrated all accessible data on genetics and genitalia morphology, many of which were still unpublished.
