Tracing the origins and evolution of nymphalid butterflies (Lepidoptera) in the Atlantic Forest

This dataset contains the sequence alignments used to reconstruct
time-calibrated phylogenies of Nymphalidae butterflies from the
Neotropical region, with a focus on lineages occurring in the Atlantic
Forest. The data include alignments for 68 newly sequenced species (43 of
which had not been previously included in global phylogenies), combined
with existing datasets from Chazot et al. (2021) and Kawahara et al.
(2023). Alignments were generated using the BUTTERFLY1.0 probe set
targeting 391 loci, including 11 legacy genes commonly used in Lepidoptera
systematics. Alignments were performed separately for nine major
Neotropical clades of Nymphalidae, using MAFFT and curated to minimize
missing data. These sequence data formed the basis for subsequent
phylogenetic, divergence time, and biogeographic analyses, and provide a
resource for future studies of butterfly evolution and Neotropical
biodiversity. In addition, it contains the MCMCtree dated phylogenies
inferred in this study and used for the biogeographical
analysis.