|
Vol. 47 No. 5, 2008
DNA-Based Discrimination of Subspecies of Swallowtail
Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilioninae) from Taiwan
Wei-Chih
Tsao and Wen-Bin Yeh*
Department
of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo-Kuang Rd,
Taichung 402, Taiwan
Wei-Chih
Tsao and Wen-Bin Yeh (2008) Partial sequences of the
mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of 89 individuals of 34
papilionid species from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China were determined
and compared. The uncorrected nucleotide divergence of COI
increased with taxonomic distance: that among individuals within a
species was 0%-4.7%, that among species of a given genus was
1.7%-11.6%, and that among genera in the same family was
6.7%-17%. In general, a low level of divergence of the COI
sequence was observed among subspecies. Yet, the COI sequence
divergence among subspecies of Byasa
alcinous, Papilio demoleus,
Pap. helenus, Pap. nephelus, and Pazala eurous, which exceeded 2.1%,
was much greater than the average divergence observed for all 34
species. A phylogenetic analysis grouped together members of the
same species or genus with high bootstrap values. The
phylogenetic tree revealed a lineage of Chilasa and Agehana followed by
Papilio, a close affinity between Byasa
and Atrophaneura, and a clade
comprised of Graphium, Lamproptera, Paranticopsis, Pathysa, and Pazala. Sequence variations
and phylogenetic analysis results of papilionid COI genes showed that
subspecies of B. alcinous, Pap. demoleus, Pap. helenus, Pap. nephelus, and Paz. eurous from different
geographic regions and with wings of slightly different color
intensities and spot patterns should probably constitute more than 1
species. Current undifferentiated COI data also suggested that
some subspecies of Pap. bianor,
Pap. demoleus, Pap. memnon, Pap. nephelus, Pap. paris, Pap. polytes, and Pap. protenor might therefore not
to be completely isolated from each other or only recently dispersed.
Key words: Papilionidae,
Swallowtail butterfly, Subspecies, Cytochrome oxidase I, COI.
*Correspondence: Tel: 886-4-22840799 ext. 558. Fax:
886-4-22875024. E-mail:wbyeh@nchu.edu.tw
|
