“…The Kuroshio current is thought to be a strong oceanic mechanism in shaping the distribution of tropical sea grasses (Kuo, Kanamoto, Iizumi, Aioi, & Mukai, 2006) and population genetic structures of skinks in the Ryukyu Archipelago (Kurita & Hikida, 2014). However, the stepping-stone model of colonization in the Taiwan-Luzon volcanic belt has never been rigorously tested using a molecular phylogeographical approach, with the exception of some phylogenetic studies of shrews (Esselstyn & Oliveros, 2010), birds (Oliveros & Moyle, 2010) and geckos (Siler, Oaks, Cobb, Ota, & Brown, 2014), which indicated a direction of colonization from either Northern Taiwan (shrews) and Batanes (birds) or Southern Luzon (geckos). Nevertheless, these earlier studies were limited by representatives from only a few islands across the Taiwan-Luzon volcanic belt to fully address the direction and stepwise pattern of the stepping-stone hypothesis.…”