Amazing paper detailing mimicry in neotropical skippers
Mar 18, 2019 13:50:38 GMT
cabintom and skandinavisk like this
Post by jshuey on Mar 18, 2019 13:50:38 GMT
Genomes of skipper butterflies reveal extensive convergence of
wing patterns" by Wenlin Li, Qian Cong, Jinhui Shen, Jing Zhang, Winnie
Hallwachs, Daniel H. Janzen and Nick V. Grishin
www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/03/14/1821304116
A genomic revision of the "big, pretty" skippers (Eudaminae) was just published that indicates that most of our understanding of genera such as Urbanus, Astraptes, and Polythrix is completely incorrect, biased by species that look alike (for example big and blue or with long tails) but are distantly related at best. In addition, several new tribes are described and many species are re-instated. Here's a short a quote from the paper that gives you a feel for the findings -
"We found misclassifications to be widespread across Eudaminae and attribute them to convergence driven by the selection for large mimicry rings. This convergence is not confined to one or two basic patterns, but is more diverse. Some patterns are common in both the Old and New World, and, in addition to skippers, include butterflies from other families and even moths, flies, and beetles. We find five different phenotypes (Fig. 2) that parallel each other in two genera (Telegonus and Cecropterus) and their more distant relatives (outgroups): (i) greenish bases of brown wings, white stripe on the forewing, and hindwing with a white tail and margins; (ii) metallic-blue wing bases, and forewing with white stripe (20); (iii) brown forewing with a yellow stripe across and apical white spots; (iv) cream-white, semitranslucent spots on the brown forewing; and (v) brown wings, and hindwing with yellow tornus."
Because this is a PNAS paper, the authors are limited to 6 pages. So - the supplemental material is essentially a revision of the subfamily with many newly re-instated species here -https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2019/03/15/1821304116.DCSupplemental/pnas.1821304116.sapp.pdf .
wing patterns" by Wenlin Li, Qian Cong, Jinhui Shen, Jing Zhang, Winnie
Hallwachs, Daniel H. Janzen and Nick V. Grishin
www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/03/14/1821304116
A genomic revision of the "big, pretty" skippers (Eudaminae) was just published that indicates that most of our understanding of genera such as Urbanus, Astraptes, and Polythrix is completely incorrect, biased by species that look alike (for example big and blue or with long tails) but are distantly related at best. In addition, several new tribes are described and many species are re-instated. Here's a short a quote from the paper that gives you a feel for the findings -
"We found misclassifications to be widespread across Eudaminae and attribute them to convergence driven by the selection for large mimicry rings. This convergence is not confined to one or two basic patterns, but is more diverse. Some patterns are common in both the Old and New World, and, in addition to skippers, include butterflies from other families and even moths, flies, and beetles. We find five different phenotypes (Fig. 2) that parallel each other in two genera (Telegonus and Cecropterus) and their more distant relatives (outgroups): (i) greenish bases of brown wings, white stripe on the forewing, and hindwing with a white tail and margins; (ii) metallic-blue wing bases, and forewing with white stripe (20); (iii) brown forewing with a yellow stripe across and apical white spots; (iv) cream-white, semitranslucent spots on the brown forewing; and (v) brown wings, and hindwing with yellow tornus."
Because this is a PNAS paper, the authors are limited to 6 pages. So - the supplemental material is essentially a revision of the subfamily with many newly re-instated species here -https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/suppl/2019/03/15/1821304116.DCSupplemental/pnas.1821304116.sapp.pdf .
