The Heliconiini genera Agraulis and Dryas are widely distributed throughout the Neotropics and into adjacent temperate regions, and although they are currently treated as monotypic, both show significant geographic phenotypic variation. In this work, we employ six genetic markers (4199 bp), two mitochondrial and four nuclear, to perform coalescent species delimitation analyses in Bayesian Phylogenetics and Phylogeography (BPP) and in integrated BPP (iBPP), the latter also includes linear measurements and wings landmarks. We also analyze cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) barcode sequences for each genus using genetic distances, haplotype networks and a character-based approach. Based on the model testing results, complemented with data from previous studies, we performed morphometric analyses to compare fore and hindwing size, aspect ratio and shape among the new species. In addition, we compared the forewing spot pattern of hypothesizes species using the r package patternize and, for Dryas, compared the colour patterns of mature larvae. Model testing of the molecular species delimitation outputs favoured a seven species hypothesis for Agraulis and a four species hypothesis for Dryas. Average distances among COI barcode sequences of these groups were from 1.09 to 5.81% in Agraulis and from 1.09 to 3.44% in Dryas. Within-group distances ranged from 0 to 1.11% and between 0 and 2.43%, respectively. NeighborNet haplotype networks showed that all but one of the species are monophyletic, and the character-based approach found exclusive diagnostic positions for most species, while the rest can be recognized by unique combinations of the 44 informative nucleotide positions analysed. Morphometric analysis supported all species of Agraulis and Dryas based on wing shape, and also in several cases on wing sizes and aspect ratio (hindwing length-forewing length), including A. v. galapagensis, which was absent from the molecular study. The analysis of the forewing spot pattern also revealed differences among most species hypothesis.
The most accepted taxonomic treatment of the New World sulphurs of the genus Phoebis Hübner, [1819] recognizes 16 species including those in the current synonyms Aphrissa and Rhabdodryas. This total conflicts with the results of several recent pierid DNA barcode studies across the Neotropics. We used a five‐locus dataset to carry out species delimitation analyses using the coalescence‐based method implemented in bpp software. After testing the resulting species hypotheses using marginal likelihood estimates, we inferred their phylogenetic relationships and performed an ancestral range reconstruction with biogeobears. Our analyses recovered two different hypotheses, 26 and 24 species, that scored the highest marginal likelihood estimate. Differences between these two hypotheses, when reconciled with barcode clusters and morphology, indicated that 24 is the most likely number of species. Phoebis neocypris stat. rev., Phoebis rurina stat. rev., Phoebis virgo stat. rev., Phoebis marcellina stat. rev., Phoebis thalestris stat. rev., and Phoebis rorata stat. rev. are raised to the species rank. We dated the crown age of Phoebis to the mid‐Miocene, with the islands of the Greater Antilles as the most probable ancestral range. Three main clades of Phoebis diverged early in the evolutionary history of the genus, but most extant species‐level diversity arose after the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary. Our analyses recovered alternate range expansions and contractions, and dispersal from the islands to the continent and back, in the three main clades. Both sympatric and allopatric speciation seem to have shaped the current species richness.
Se describe una especie nueva de Beatadesmus Loomis para la República Dominicana. Los géneros Quisquicia Loomis y Dendrodesmus Pérez-Asso pasan a ser sinónimos del género Beatadesmus. Se presenta una lista actualizada con las doce especies incluidas actualmente en este género.
The taxonomic status of the Hispaniolan species of Calisto Hübner, 1823 included in the chrysaoros group is reassessed. Morphological data and COI barcode sequences were analysed through different methods: Neighbour-Joining clustering, ABGD, Median-Joining Haplotype Network, Maximum Likelihood, and Bayesian Inference. Analyses yielded two deeply separated groups or putative species: C. clydoniata and C. chrysaoros. A shallower split was found, except in the Bayesian Inference approach, among populations of southern and northern Hispaniola palaeo-islands. In light of these findings we propose the recognition of two species: C. clydoniata and C. chrysaoros. Within the latter, the populations of the southern and northern Hispaniola palaeo-islands should be recognised as different subspecies: C. chrysaoros chrysaoros Bates and C. chrysaoros galii Schwartz, respectively. Calisto clenchi, syn. nov. is a synonym of C. chrysaoros chrysaoros whereas C. galii galli, syn. nov. and C. galii choneupsilon, syn. nov. are synonyms of C. chrysaoros galii.
Se describe la segunda especie de milpiés del género Cyrtaphe para la República Dominicana; otras
tres especies habitan en Haití. La estructura de los gonopodos la distingue del resto de las especies conocidas.
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