North Andean origin and diversification of the largest ithomiine butterfly genus

Abstract

The Neotropics harbour the most diverse flora and fauna on Earth. The Andes are a major centre of diversification and source of diversity for adjacent areas in plants and vertebrates, but studies on insects remain scarce, even though they constitute the largest fraction of terrestrial biodiversity. Here, we combine molecular and morphological characters to generate a dated phylogeny of the butterfly genus Pteronymia (Nymphalidae: Danainae), which we use to infer spatial, elevational and temporal diversification patterns. We first propose six taxonomic changes that raise the generic species total to 53, making Pteronymia the most diverse genus of the tribe Ithomiini. Our biogeographic reconstruction shows that Pteronymia originated in the Northern Andes, where it diversified extensively. Some lineages colonized lowlands and adjacent montane areas, but diversification here remained scarce. The recent colonization of lowland areas was reflected by an increase in the rate of evolution of species elevational ranges towards present. By contrast, speciation rate decelerated with time, with no extinction. The geological history of the Andes and adjacent regions have likely contributed to Pteronymia diversification by providing compartmentalized habitats and an array of biotic and abiotic conditions, and by limiting dispersal between some areas while promoting interchange across others.

Renewed diversification following Miocene landscape turnover in a Neotropical butterfly radiation

“…All subtribes (10 in total) diverged during the first 10 Myr (Figure ). Node ages in our phylogeny were generally slightly younger than those inferred by Wahlberg et al (), but older than those inferred by Garzón‐Orduña, Silva‐Brandão, Willmott, Freitas, and Brower () (for further discussion of such differences, see De‐Silva et al, ).…”

“…We compiled sequences of 1,474 Ithomiini individuals (see Supporting Information Appendix S1.1) that included 718 sequences newly generated for this study and 3,147 previously published sequences (Brower et al, ; Chazot et al, , ; Chazot, Willmott, Condamine, et al, ; De‐Silva et al, , , ; Elias et al, ; Mallarino et al, ; Whinnett, Brower, Lee, Willmott, & Mallet, ). We used a concatenation of nine gene fragments, a mitochondrial fragment spanning genes COI‐tRNA‐COII , and fragments of nuclear genes EFIα , Tektin , CAD , RPS2 , MDH and GAPDH , representing a total of 7,083 bp (Wahlberg & Wheat, ).…”

“…In this study, we generate the first species‐level molecular phylogeny of the entire tribe, providing a large and densely sampled (340 species included out of 393 currently recognized) phylogenetic dataset for a Neotropical insect clade that underwent diversification during the last c . 30 Myr (De‐Silva et al, ; Wahlberg et al, ). We investigate the dynamics of diversification and dispersal rates in Ithomiini, focusing on the turnover of ecological conditions in Western Amazonia and the concomitant Andean uplift during the Miocene.…”

A novel R3 MYB transcriptional repressor associated with the loss of floral pigmentation in Iochroma

“…Indeed, as already mentioned, one of these genes ( MYB27 in P. hybrida ) has been well characterized and actively represses anthocyanin biosynthesis (Albert et al ., , ). The presence of only a single Petunia sequence in this Solanaceae repressor clade suggests that the duplication which gave rise to MYBL1 occurred after the split of Petunieae and the ‘ x = 12’ clade containing Solanoideae (23–47 Ma) (De‐Silva et al ., ). These Solanaceae MYBL1 and MYB3‐like sequences are closely related to AtMYBL2 and the Arabidopsis subgroup 4 MYBs (Fig.…”

Contrasting patterns of Andean diversification among three diverse clades of Neotropical clearwing butterflies

“…Here, we investigated spatial and temporal patterns of diversification and assessed support for these four biogeographic scenarios in two Neotropical butterfly clades, the ithomiine subtribes Dircennina and Oleriina (Nymphalidae: Danainae), and we compare them to published diversification patterns of a third ithomiine subtribe, Godyridina (Chazot et al., ). Both clades belong to the nymphalid tribe Ithomiini, one of the best‐studied groups of Neotropical butterflies (Mallarino, Bermingham, Willmott, Whinnett, & Jiggins, ; Brower et al., ; Willmott & Freitas, ; Elias et al., ; Brower, Willmott, Silva‐Brandão, Garzón‐Orduña, & Freitas, ; Garzón‐Orduña, Silva‐Brandão, Willmott, Freitas, & Brower, ; Chazot et al., , ; De‐Silva et al., , , ). These three clades (the three largest ithomiine subtribes with 101 known species of Dircennina, 77 Godyridina, and 64 Oleriina, representing over 60% of ithomiine diversity) are endemic to the Neotropical region and occupy forest habitats from Central America to the Atlantic Forest, from the lowlands to high altitudes in the Andes.…”