共域分布但利用不同寄主植物的蝶類隱藏種群為異域起源

文獻來源: McBride CS, Velzen RV & Larsen TB. 2009. Allopatric origin of cryptic butterfly species that were discovered feeding on distinct host plants in sympatry. Molecular Ecology 18(17): 3639-3651. [Abstract]

近年熱帶昆蟲的研究持續發現隱藏種－意指由於形態近似，過去被歸類為同一種，但其實具生殖隔離的不同物種。然而此類研究大多局限於單一地點，因此對於這些隱藏種的地理分布與種內變異所知極為有限，這也造成在推測何種力量促成此多樣性時的困難。例如在許多廣食性的植食或寄生昆蟲被發現實為多種專食性物種的研究中，寄主轉移被認為與種化有關，但是寄主轉移發生於何時、何地？是否受到地理隔離的幫助？此研究使用最近於西非喀麥隆中部被發現，利用不同寄主植物，且在過去被認為皆屬Cymothoe egesta的兩個隱藏種蛺蝶來回答這些問題。作者群首先利用粒線體DNA的COI片段，試圖區分採自兩種不同寄主植物上的個體，再擴及所有採自泛熱帶非洲區的個體。結果出乎作者的意料之外，這兩種蛺蝶的分布格局幾乎是異域的，僅在初次被發現兩者共域的西非中部有小範圍的交集，再加上遺傳變異的分析結果，顯示分化過程應為異域種化，發生的時間可能在更新世。作者最後探討在理解新近於熱帶非洲發現的隱藏種種化時，此研究結果的意義何在，並認為在地理分布模式與寄主利用的課題上需要更多研究投入。

Abstract

Surveys of tropical insects are increasingly uncovering cryptic species – morphologically similar yet reproductively isolated taxa once thought to comprise a single interbreeding entity. The vast majority of such species are described from a single location. This leaves us with little information on geographic range and intraspecific variation and limits our ability to infer the forces responsible for generating such diversity. For example, in herbivorous and parasitic insects, multiple specialists are often discovered within what were thought to be single more generalized species. Host shifts are likely to have contributed to speciation in these cases. But when and where did those shifts occur, and were they facilitated by geographic isolation? We attempted to answer these questions for two cryptic species within the butterfly Cymothoe egesta that were recently discovered on different host plants in central Cameroon. We first used mtDNA markers to separate individuals collected on the two hosts within Cameroon and then extended our analysis to incorporate individuals collected across the entire pan-Afrotropical range of the original taxon. To our surprise, we found that the species are almost entirely allopatric, dividing the original range and overlapping only in the narrow zone of West-Central Africa where they were first discovered in sympatry. This finding, combined with analyses of genetic variation within each butterfly species, strongly suggests that speciation occurred in allopatry, probably during the Pleistocene. We discuss the implications of our results for understanding speciation among other cryptic species recently discovered in the tropics and argue that more work is needed on geographic patterns and host usage in such taxa.

新書【綠島的蛾】出版與訂購訊息

先看這邊, 其它容後再報

藏於台灣農業試驗所(TARI)楚南仁博收藏中之弄蝶模式標本

文獻來源: Chiba H, Hsu YF, Tsukiyama H, Lo PYF, Chen CR, Wang SM. 2009. Jinhaku Sonan’s skipper type collection deposited at Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Zootaxa 2202: 48–58. [全文下載]

Abstract Of the 12 skipper taxa described by Jinhaku Sonan (1892-1984) from Taiwan and Hainan Island, 2 are recognized as valid species-level names, 4 as valid subspecies-level names, whereas the remaining 6 are considered junior subjective synonyms of other taxa. A revised status is established for a Hainan taxon, Tagiades japetus hainana Sonan, stat. rev., and Polytremis kiraizana (Sonan) is formally confirmed as a species endemic to Taiwan. The valid species-level names are Ochlodes niitakanus (Sonan) and Polytremis kiraizana (Sonan). The valid subspecies-level names are Lobocla bifasciata kodairai Sonan, Pseudocoladenia dan sadakoe Sonan & Mitono, Notocrypta feisthamelii arisana Sonan, and Tagiades japetus hainana Sonan. Tagiades menaka kotoshona Sonan is considered a junior subjective synonym of T. trebellius martinus Plötz, Ampittia maro matsumurai Sonan a junior subjective synonym of Ampittia dioscorides etura Mabille, Parnara kotoshona Sonan a junior subjective synonym of Parnara guttata (Bremer & Grey), Parnara ranrunna Sonan a junior subjective synonym of Caltoris cahira austeni (Moore), Gangara thyrsis hainana Sonan a junior subjective synonym of Gangara thyrsis thyrsis (Fabricius), and Telicota palmarum hainanum Sonan a junior subjective synonym of Cephrenes acalle oceanica (Mabille) in the present study.

美洲偽燈蛾亞科(=透翅舟蛾亞科, 槲舟蛾亞科)的屬級系統分類

文獻來源:
Miller JS. 2009. Generic revision of the Dioptinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Notodontidae) Part 1: Dioptini. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 321: 1-674. [全文下載]
Miller JS. 2009. Generic revision of the Dioptinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Notodontidae) Part 2: Josiini. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 321: 675-1022. [全文下載]

Abstract
The moth subfamily Dioptinae is almost entirely neotropical. One species—Phryganidia californica—occurs on the west coast of the US, while the remaining taxa are found from Mexico south to northern Argentina and Uruguay. None is known from the Old World. Most dioptines are diurnal as adults, and many exhibit aposematic coloration. A few taxa are nocturnal. Their larval hosts include the families Passifloraceae, Violaceae and Poaceae, plants famous for their use by important butterfly groups.

In this paper, a revised generic classification for the Dioptinae is presented. Nearly 17,000 specimens, assembled from 38 private and institutional collections worldwide, form the basis for the first comprehensive analysis of adult morphology in the subfamily. A subset of 115 exemplar species, chosen to represent structural diversity across the Dioptinae, is subjected to detailed morphological study and cladistic analysis. The resulting matrix includes 305 characters delineated by 938 character states. Cladistic analyses produced a single most parsimonious tree, rooted using three species from the Nystaleinae—the sister-subfamily to the Dioptinae. This phylogenetic hypothesis provides the framework for a revised classification.

The 456 species are assigned to 43 genera in two tribes; 10 species are treated as incertae sedis. Twelve genera are synonymized, and seven—Argentala, Chrysoglossa, Nebulosa, Notascea, Pikroprion, Proutiella, and Sagittala—are described as new. The 36 remaining genera are redescribed. Sixteen genera are further subdivided into species groups. All 574 species-group names of previous authors are addressed; in nearly all cases, primary type material was examined. Forty-seven species are newly synonymized, while 31 names are revived from synonymy. The revised classification includes 118 new combinations. Sixty-four species belonging in 30 different genera are newly described from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

An illustrated overview of dioptine morphology is presented, demonstrating remarkable variation in a wide range of structures. Dichotomous keys utilizing external adult anatomy are provided to the tribes, genera, species groups and species. The salient features of each genus are figured and described. Heads, labial palpi, antennae, metathoracic tympani, wing scales, wing venation, and male and female terminalia are shown through line drawings, photographs, and scanning electron micrographs. Each species is diagnosed, its habitus is illustrated in color, type material is notated, and a summary of its known geographical distribution is presented.

General themes, as exemplified by the Dioptinae, are discussed. These include: Estimating species diversity in neotropical Lepidoptera; the evolution of aposematic coloration and mimicry; patterns of host-plant use; and the potential utility of characters from immature stages and DNA for further refining our understanding of dioptine evolution.

蝶種分布位移之歷史校準預測: 以全球變遷作為一個假性試驗

Historically calibrated predictions of butterfly species' range shift using global change as a pseudo-experiment

Ecology: Vol. 90, No. 8, pp. 2213-2222.

HEATHER M. KHAROUBA,1 ADAM C. ALGAR, AND JEREMY T. KERR2Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, 30 Marie Curie, P.O. Box 450 Station A, Ottawa, Ontario K1N6N5 Canada

全球變遷具有造成大滅絕的潛力。預知物種對於可預測的改變會如何反應使有效保護他們並降低滅絕率的先決條件。物種棲位模型在這類預測中被廣泛應用，然而在長期尺度上的可靠性則具有變化。然而，北半球國家的氣候與土地利用改變為預測未來情形的模型可靠度提供了假性實驗測試，物種分布與環境狀況的歷史資料均可取得。運用最大熵原理，一個重要的模擬技術，我們可以重建橫跨加拿大地區蝴蝶物種的歷史分布模型，然後用此模型模擬出現今物種分布範圍以和實際情形對照，得知其預測的準確度。對大多數的蝴蝶物種而言，我們所預測物種的推估會對已知的氣候變化有反應，與物種反應的觀測值一致(平均自迴歸 R2 ¼ 0.70)。此一致性在來自北方的物種與廣佈種中下降。作者的結果顯示，至少有一部分的物種會隨著氣候變遷而在廣大的地理區中改變分布範圍，且其改變可以藉由棲位模型被準確預測。然而，作者也發現儘管在模型運算時有很高的空間模型準確度、某些物種在此模型中隨著時間預測仍是失敗的，突現出在基本經營管理決策上所需應是物種的組成、而非單一物種。

Abstract.

Global changes have the potential to cause a mass extinction. Predicting how species will respond to anticipated changes is a necessary prerequisite to effectively conserving them and reducing extinction rates. Species niche models are widely used for such predictions, but their reliability over long time periods is known to vary. However, climate and land use changes in northern countries provide a pseudo-experiment to test model reliability for predicting future conditions, provided historical data on both species distributions and environmental conditions are available. Using maximum entropy, a prominent modeling technique, we constructed historical models of butterfly species’ ranges across Canada and then ran the models forward to present-day to test how well they predicted the current ranges of species. For the majority of species, projections of how we predicted species would respond to known climate changes corresponded with species’ observed responses (mean autoregressive R2 ¼ 0.70). This correspondence declined for northerly and very widely distributed species. Our results demonstrate that at least some species are tracking shifting climatic conditions across very large geographic areas and that these shifts can be predicted accurately using niche models. We also found, however, that models for some species fail when projected through time despite high spatial model accuracies during model training, highlighting the need to base management decisions on species assemblages, not individual species.

Key words: butterflies; Canada; climate change; land use change; macroecology; maximum entropy;range shifts; space-for-time substitution; species assemblages; species niche models.

台灣常見的蝴蝶改版

詳情請見蝶會網頁

雌性普羅大蠶蛾交配多次具有何種功能？

photo by natural born hikers

The Function of Multiple Mating by Female Promethea Moths, Callosamia promethea (Drury) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)

Eugene S. Morton
The American Midland Naturalist Jul 2009 : Vol. 162, Issue 1, pg(s) 7-18 doi: 10.1674/0003-0031-162.1.7

作者在半自然的條件下對普羅大蠶蛾(Callosamia promethea)與鵝掌楸蠶蛾(C. angulifera) 進行一妻多夫現象之比較。普羅大蠶蛾是天蠶蛾科中首先被文獻描述具有一妻多夫制的種類，而鵝掌楸蠶蛾則是一夫制的。實驗顯示一妻多夫和一妻一夫的普羅大蠶蛾雌性可達到近似的卵受精率，但是多夫的雌性能多產下10%的卵，具有顯著的差異。這些差異是從同一棵寄主植物上取食的五個普羅大蠶蛾手足群體中發現的。一妻多夫的普羅大蠶蛾具有的較高生殖力與雌性的體型、交配持續時間、卵的大小或數量、產卵的天數或屬於何手足群體均沒有關連。所有的雌性在產卵期尾聲時的卵尺寸均較小，體型小的雌蛾在產卵期中較早產下多量的卵。分別的標記再捕捉法研究顯示雄性的普羅大蠶蛾也交配多次（一夫多妻）、且在擇偶偏好上喜好未交配過的處女蛾。日間交配的普羅大蠶蛾可能可增加遺傳多樣性 與/和 由多夫制中得到來自精液的贈與。夜行性的天蠶蛾科物種均為一夫制，可能導因於產卵與交配兩者的時間衝突凌駕於多夫制的好處之上。若多夫制可增加繁殖力，則可推測在其他的日行性天蠶蛾中也會發生。

Abstract

Promethea (Callosamia promethea) and tulip tree silk moths (C. angulifera) were compared under semi-natural conditions for the presence of polyandry. Promethea were polyandrous, the first documentation for a saturniid moth, whereas tulip tree moths were monandrous. Experiments showed that polyandrous and monandrous promethea females achieved similar egg fertility, but polyandrous females laid 10% more eggs, a significant difference (P < 0.05). This difference was found in five sibling groups, whose larvae were reared on the same individual food plant. Higher fecundity for polyandrous promethea females was not related to female size, duration of copulation, egg size and number, number of days in laying period or sibling group. Egg size declined later in the laying period for all females. Small females laid more eggs earlier in the laying period than large females. A separate mark/recapture study showed that male promethea also mate multiple times (polygyny) and distinguish virgin from nonvirgin females in mating preference. The diurnally mating promethea may gain increased genetic variability and/or possibly seminal gifts from polyandry. Monandry in totally nocturnal saturniid moths may result from a time conflict between egg laying and mating, which overrides the benefits of polyandry. If polyandry increases fecundity, it is predicted to occur in other diurnally mating saturniids.

Received: March 3, 2008; Accepted: April 21, 2008