ALEXEY M. PROZOROV, TATIANA A. PROZOROVA, JULIA S. VOLKOVA, ROMAN V. YAKOVLEV, SVETLANA V. NEDOSHIVINA, MANUELA PINZARI, MARIO PINZARI, STEFANO SCALERCIO, GIOVANNI BIANCO, AIDAS SALDAITIS, AXEL HAUSMANN, EDITA E. REVAY, and GÜNTER C. MÜLLER
The species Lemonia taraxaci (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1755) is divided into three species based on distribution areas and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) distances above 2%: Central European Lemonia taraxaci (type locality: Austria, Vienna area), Eastern European to South Siberian Lemonia sibirica Wnukowsky, 1934 stat. rev., bona sp. (type locality: Russia, Novosibirsk Oblast, Ozero-Karachi and Russia, Altai Krai, Kornilovo), and Italian Lemonia italiana sp. n. (type locality: Italy, Calabria centr., Sila grd., Casali del Manco, San Nicola Silano (CS)). Authorship of Lemonia strigata Antoshin & Zolotuhin, 2011 is reconsidered. The close relation between the typical L. strigata and taraxaci-like adults from the Balkans is proven genetically. According to this, L. strigata is suggested to be a junior synonym of taraxaci-looking Lemonia taraxaci var. montana Buresch, 1915 (type locality: Bulgaria, Rhodope Mts, Musala), although further DNA investigation is needed to prove this hypothesis.