Evaluating the roles of geography and environment for European-wide spatial genetic structure in three Argynnini butterfly species

The relative contributions of different evolutionary processes may vary even between coexisting closely related species, owing to ecological differences and species-specific responses to environmental conditions. A large-scale comparative phylogeographic approach help reveal how convergent evolution and species-specific responses to environmental factors jointly shape genetic diversity and structure in closely related species. In this project, we conducted a comparative phylogeographic study on three Argynnini butterfly species (Fabriciana adippe, F. niobe and Speyeria aglaja) by studying European-wide population genetic structure of the species using nuclear ddRAD-sequencing SNP markers and mitochondrial COI sequences.