Das Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels

ist ein Forschungsmuseum der Leibniz Gemeinschaft

A Comprehensive and dated phylogenomic analysis of butterflies

Erscheinungsjahr: 
2018
Vollständiger Titel: 
A Comprehensive and dated phylogenomic analysis of butterflies
ZFMK-Autorinnen / ZFMK-Autoren: 
Org. Einordnung: 
Publiziert in: 
Current Biology
Publikationstyp: 
Zeitschriftenaufsatz
DOI Name: 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.061
Bibliographische Angaben: 
Espeland, M., Breinholt, J., Willmott, K.R., Warren, A.D., Vila, R., Toussaint, E.F.A., Maunsell. S.C. et al.( 2018): A Comprehensive and dated phylogenomic analysis of butterflies. Current Biology 28 (5): 770-778.e5
Abstract: 

Butterflies (Papilionoidea), with over 18,000 described species [1], have captivated naturalists and scien- tists for centuries. They play a central role in the study of speciation, community ecology, biogeography, climate change, and plant-insect interactions and include many model organisms and pest species [2, 3]. However, a robust higher-level phylogenetic framework is lacking. To fill this gap, we inferred a dated phylogeny by analyzing the first phylogenomic dataset, including 352 loci (> 150,000 bp) from 207 species representing 98% of tribes, a 35-fold increase in gene sampling and 3-fold increase in taxon sam- pling over previous studies [4]. Most data were gener- ated with a new anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) [5] gene kit (BUTTERFLY1.0) that includes both new and frequently used (e.g., [6]) informative loci, enabling direct comparison and future dataset merg- ing with previous studies. Butterflies originated around 119 million years ago (mya) in the late Cretaceous, but most extant lineages diverged after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass-extinction 65 mya. Our analyses support swallowtails (Papil- ionidae) as sister to all other butterflies, followed by skippers (Hesperiidae) + the nocturnal butterflies (Hedylidae) as sister to the remainder, indicating a secondary reversal from diurnality to nocturnality. The whites (Pieridae) were strongly supported as sister to brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) and blues + metalmarks (Lycaenidae and Riodinidae). Ant association independently evolved once in Lycae- nidae and twice in Riodinidae. This study overturns prior notions of the taxon’s evolutionary history, as many long-recognized subfamilies and tribes are para- or polyphyletic. It also provides a much-needed backbone for a revised classification of butterflies and for future comparative studies including genome evolution and ecology.