Integrative taxonomy clarifies species limits in the hitherto monotypic passion‐vine butterfly genera Agraulis and Dryas (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayner Núñez ◽  
Keith R. Willmott ◽  
Yosiel Álvarez ◽  
Julio A. Genaro ◽  
Antonio R. Pérez‐Asso ◽  
...  
2012 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Pina ◽  
Maria Jesús Verdú ◽  
Alberto Urbaneja ◽  
Beatriz Sabater-Muñoz

The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Winker

Abstract Accurately determining avian species limits has been a challenge and a work in progress for most of a century. It is a fascinating but difficult problem. Under the biological species concept, only lineages that remain essentially independent when they are in sympatry are clearly species. Otherwise, there is no clear line yet found that marks when a pair of diverging lineages (e.g., in allopatry) become different enough to warrant full biological species status. Also, with more data, species limits often require reevaluation. The process of divergence and speciation is itself very complex and is the focus of intense research. Translating what we understand of that process into taxonomic names can be challenging. A series of issues are important. Single-locus criteria are unlikely to be convincing. Genetic independence is not a species limits requirement, but the degree of independence (gene flow) needs to be considered when there is opportunity for gene flow and independence is not complete. Time-based species (limits determined by time of separation) are unsatisfactory, though integrating time more effectively into our datasets is warranted. We need to disentangle data signal due to neutral processes vs. selection and prioritize the latter as the main driver of speciation. Assortative mating is also not likely to be an adequate criterion for determining species limits. Hybridization and gene flow are more important than ever, and there is a condition not being treated evenly in taxonomy: evolutionary trysts of 2 or more lineages stuck together through gene flow just short of speciation over long periods. Comparative methods that use what occurs between good species in contact to infer species limits among allopatric forms remain the gold standard, but they can be inaccurate and controversial. Species-level taxonomy in birds is likely to remain unsettled for some time. While the study of avian speciation has never been more exciting and dynamic, there is no silver bullet for species delimitation, nor is it likely that there will ever be one. Careful work using integrative taxonomy in a comparative framework is the most promising way forward.


2013 ◽  
Vol 146 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Miles Zhang ◽  
Michael W. Gates ◽  
Joseph D. Shorthouse

AbstractStudies of insect host-parasitoid relationships are often confounded by the difficulties associated with species delimitation in taxonomically challenging groups. Eurytomidae (Hymenoptera) are common parasitoids associated with galls induced by Cynipidae (Hymenoptera) and are difficult to identify due to their small size, morphological conservatism, and unreliable published host records. This study tests the species limits of eurytomids associated with galls induced by Diplolepis Geoffroy (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) in Canada using an integrative taxonomy approach including adult morphology, the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I, host records, and geographical range. Incongruences between morphological and molecular data were found within the Eurytoma discordans Bugbee complex, as Eurytoma discordans, Eurytoma acuta Bugbee, and Eurytoma calcarea Bugbee were shown to be new synonyms. The results also revealed the presence of cryptic species within Eurytoma spongiosa Bugbee. Furthermore, issues that have impeded ecological and biological studies of eurytomids associated with rose galls such as host specificity and sex association were resolved using DNA barcodes, providing new insights into the evolutionary history of this difficult group.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence M. Cook

Joseph Sidebotham (1824–1885) was a Manchester cotton baron whose natural history collections are now in the Manchester Museum. In addition to collecting he suggested a method for identifying and classifying Lepidoptera and investigated variation within species as well as species limits. With three close collaborators, he is credited with discovering many species new to Britain in both Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. A suspicion of fraud attaches to these claims. The evidence is not clear-cut in the Lepidoptera, but a possible reason is suggested why Sidebotham, as an amateur in the increasingly professional scientific world, might have engaged in deceit.


Erdkunde ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-354
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schmidtlein ◽  
Ulrike Faude ◽  
Ole Rössler ◽  
Hannes Feilhauer ◽  
Jörg Ewald ◽  
...  

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 428
Author(s):  
Martin Stervander ◽  
Bengt Hansson ◽  
Urban Olsson ◽  
Mark F. Hulme ◽  
Ulf Ottosson ◽  
...  

Larks constitute an avian family of exceptional cryptic diversity and striking examples of convergent evolution. Therefore, traditional morphology-based taxonomy has recurrently failed to reflect evolutionary relationships. While taxonomy ideally should integrate morphology, vocalizations, behaviour, ecology, and genetics, this can be challenging for groups that span several continents including areas that are difficult to access. Here, we combine morphometrics and mitochondrial DNA to evaluate the taxonomy of Calandrella larks, with particular focus on the African C. cinerea and the Asian C. acutirostris complexes. We describe a new range-restricted West African taxon, Calandrella cinerea rufipecta ssp. nov. (type locality: Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria), with an isolated relic population 3000 km from its closest relative in the Rift Valley. We performed molecular species delimitation, employing coalescence-based multi-rate Poisson Tree Processes (mPTP) on cytochrome b sequences across 52 currently recognized lark species, including multiple taxa currently treated as subspecies. Three species-level splits were inferred within the genus Calandrella and another 13 across other genera, primarily among fragmented sub-Saharan taxa and taxa distributed from Northwest Africa to Arabia or East Africa. Previously unknown divergences date back as far as to the Miocene, indicating the presence of currently unrecognized species. However, we stress that taxonomic decisions should not be based on single datasets, such as mitochondrial DNA, although analyses of mitochondrial DNA can be a good indicator of taxa in need of further integrative taxonomic assessment.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 408
Author(s):  
Phougeishangbam Rolish Singh ◽  
Gerrit Karssen ◽  
Marjolein Couvreur ◽  
Sergei A. Subbotin ◽  
Wim Bert

Pin nematodes of the genus Paratylenchus are obligate ectoparasites of a wide variety of plants that are distributed worldwide. In this study, individual morphologically vouchered nematode specimens of fourteen Paratylenchus species, including P. aculentus, P. elachistus, P. goodeyi, P. holdemani, P. idalimus, P. microdorus, P. nanus, P. neoamblycephalus, P. straeleni and P. veruculatus, are unequivocally linked to the D2-D3 of 28S, ITS, 18S rRNA and COI gene sequences. Combined with scanning electron microscopy and a molecular analysis of an additional nine known and thirteen unknown species originating from diverse geographic regions, a total of 92 D2-D3 of 28S, 41 ITS, 57 18S rRNA and 111 COI new gene sequences are presented. Paratylenchus elachistus, P. holdemani and P. neoamblycephalus are recorded for the first time in Belgium and P. idalimus for the first time in Europe. Paratylenchus is an excellent example of an incredibly diverse yet morphologically minimalistic plant-parasitic genus, and this study provides an integrated analysis of all available data, including coalescence-based molecular species delimitation, resulting in an updated Paratylenchus phylogeny and the corrective reassignment of 18 D2-D3 of 28S, 3 ITS, 3 18S rRNA and 25 COI gene sequences that were previously unidentified or incorrectly classified.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 583
Author(s):  
Giulia Furfaro ◽  
Paolo Mariottini

Integrative taxonomy is an evolving field of multidisciplinary studies often utilised to elucidate phylogenetic reconstructions that were poorly understood in the past. The systematics of many taxa have been resolved by combining data from different research approaches, i.e., molecular, ecological, behavioural, morphological and chemical. Regarding molecular analysis, there is currently a search for new genetic markers that could be diagnostic at different taxonomic levels and that can be added to the canonical ones. In marine Heterobranchia, the most widely used mitochondrial markers, COI and 16S, are usually analysed by comparing the primary sequence. The 16S rRNA molecule can be folded into a 2D secondary structure that has been poorly exploited in the past study of heterobranchs, despite 2D molecular analyses being sources of possible diagnostic characters. Comparison of the results from the phylogenetic analyses of a concatenated (the nuclear H3 and the mitochondrial COI and 16S markers) dataset (including 30 species belonging to eight accepted genera) and from the 2D folding structure analyses of the 16S rRNA from the type species of the genera investigated demonstrated the diagnostic power of this RNA molecule to reveal the systematics of four genera belonging to the family Myrrhinidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia). The “molecular morphological” approach to the 16S rRNA revealed to be a powerful tool to delimit at both species and genus taxonomic levels and to be a useful way of recovering information that is usually lost in phylogenetic analyses. While the validity of the genera Godiva, Hermissenda and Phyllodesmium are confirmed, a new genus is necessary and introduced for Dondice banyulensis, Nemesis gen. nov. and the monospecific genus Nanuca is here synonymised with Dondice, with Nanuca sebastiani transferred into Dondice as Dondice sebastiani comb. nov.


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