Ancient Neotropical Origin and Recent Recolonisation: Phylogeny, Biogeography and Diversification of the Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), 2012

This dataset is a part of the project "From host plants to host ants: Evolution of phyto-predation in butterflies, 2014". This project presents the first dated higher-level phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of the butterfly family Riodinidae. This family is distributed worldwide, but more than 90% of the c. 1500 species are found in the Neotropics, while the c. 120 Old World species are concentrated in the Southeast Asian tropics, with minor Afrotropical and Australasian tropical radiations, and few temperate species. Morphologically based higher classification is partly unresolved, with genera incompletely assigned to tribes. Using 3666 bp from one mitochondrial and four nuclear markers for each of 23 outgroups and 178 riodinid taxa representing all subfamilies, tribes and subtribes, and 98 out of 145 described genera of riodinids, it is estimated that Riodinidae split from Lycaenidae about 96 Mya in the mid-Cretaceous and started to diversify about 81 Mya. The Riodinidae are monophyletic and originated in the Neotropics, most likely in lowland proto-Amazonia. Neither the subfamily Euselasiinae nor the Nemeobiinae are monophyletic as currently constituted. The enigmatic, monotypic Neotropical genera Styx and Corrachia (most recently treated in Euselasiinae: Corrachiini) are highly supported as derived taxa in the Old World Nemeobiinae, with dispersal most likely occurring across the Beringia land bridge during the Oligocene. Styx and Corrachia, together with all other nemeobiines, are the only exclusively Primulaceae-feeding riodinids. The steadily increasing proliferation of the Neotropical Riodininae subfamily contrasts with the decrease in diversification in the Old World, and may provide insights into factors influencing the diversification rate of this relatively ancient clade of Neotropical insects. Data are freely available for downloading (follow the link under related material).

本数据集是2014年“从寄主植物到寄主蚂蚁：蝴蝶植食性演化”项目的一部分。该项目首次对蝴蝶科（Riodinidae）进行了定年的高级别系统发育与生物地理分析。该科全球分布，但约1500个物种中超过90%见于新热带界（Neotropics），而约120个旧世界（Old World）物种集中于东南亚热带地区，非洲热带界（Afrotropical）与澳大拉西亚热带界（Australasian）的物种辐射规模较小，温带物种则寥寥无几。基于形态学的高级分类部分尚未解决，属级类群未完全归入族级分类单元。研究对23个外类群（outgroups）及代表Riodinidae所有亚科、族、亚族的178个分类单元（taxa）（涵盖该科145个已描述属中的98个），分别采用1个线粒体标记与4个核标记的3666个碱基对（bp）序列，估算得出蝴蝶科（Riodinidae）于白垩纪中期（mid-Cretaceous）约96百万年前（Mya）与灰蝶科（Lycaenidae）分化，并于约81百万年前开始多样化。蝴蝶科（Riodinidae）为单系群（monophyletic），起源于新热带界（Neotropics），极可能源自原始亚马逊低地（proto-Amazonia）。按当前分类界定，Euselasiinae亚科（Euselasiinae）与Nemeobiinae亚科（Nemeobiinae）均非单系群（monophyletic）。神秘的单型新热带界（Neotropics）属Styx（Styx）与Corrachia（Corrachia）（近期被归入Euselasiinae亚科：Corrachiini族（Corrachiini））被高度支持为旧世界（Old World）Nemeobiinae亚科（Nemeobiinae）的衍生类群（derived taxa），其扩散（dispersal）极可能发生于渐新世（Oligocene）时期的白令陆桥（Beringia land bridge）。Styx属（Styx）与Corrachia属（Corrachia）及所有其他Nemeobiinae亚科（Nemeobiinae）物种，是蝴蝶科（Riodinidae）中唯一仅取食报春花科（Primulaceae）植物的类群。新热带界（Neotropics）Riodininae亚科（Riodininae）的持续增殖与旧世界（Old World）类群多样化（diversification）的下降形成鲜明对比，这或许能为探究影响这一相对古老的新热带界（Neotropics）昆虫支系（clade）多样化速率的因素提供启示。数据可免费下载（请点击相关材料下的链接）.