Phylogeography of the small grass yellow Eurema brigitta (Stoll, 1780) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) unveils the existence of distinct taxa within the Palaeotropics

0579768 - BC 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Irungbam, Meenakshi - Irungbam, J. S. - Rindoš, M. - Papp Marešová, Jana - Fric, Zdeněk
Phylogeography of the small grass yellow Eurema brigitta (Stoll, 1780) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) unveils the existence of distinct taxa within the Palaeotropics.
Austral Entomology. Roč. 62, č. 4 (2023), s. 410-417. ISSN 2052-1758. E-ISSN 2052-174X
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : Old World * phylogeny * Rhopalocera
OECD category: Entomology
Impact factor: 1.6, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/aen.12665

Eurema brigitta (Stoll, 1780) is one of the few butterfly species distributed in most of the Old World tropics. In 2017, we documented its occurrence in Socotra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Now, we clarify the origin of this specimen and further describe a phylogeographic pattern of this species by comparing Afrotropical, Malagasy and Oriental-Australian populations using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I marker. We found a deep split between the Afrotropical and Oriental-Australian populations of this taxon, which are separated by the Indian Ocean and dry eremic habitats on the northern coasts. A less deep but significant split also exists between E. b. brigitta (Stoll, 1780) from mainland Africa and E. b. pulchella (Boisduval, 1833) from Madagascar and surrounding islands. The individual from Socotra clearly originates from Africa. In addition, in accordance with the genetic pattern and the known morphological evidence, we propose to transfer the Oriental-Australian populations into a separate species, Eurema drona (Horsfield, 1829) reinst. stat.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351946