PMID: 11327160May 1, 2001Paper

The phylogenetics and biochemistry of host-plant specialization in Melitaeine butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
Niklas Wahlberg

Abstract

Butterflies in the tribe Melitaeini (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) are known to utilize host plants belonging to 16 families, although most host-plant records are from four families. Of the 16 host-plant families, 12 produce secondary plant metabolites called iridoids. Earlier studies have shown that larvae of several melitaeine species use iridoids as feeding stimulants and sequester these compounds for larval defense. I investigate the evolutionary history of host-plant use in the tribe Melitaeini by testing a recent phylogenetic hypothesis of 65 species representing the four major species groups of the tribe. By simple character optimization of host-plant families and presence/absence of iridoids in the host plants, I find that plant chemistry is a more conservative trait than plant taxonomy. The ancestral host plant(s) of the entire tribe most likely contained iridoids and were likely to be in the plant family Plantaginaceae. A major host shift from plants containing iridoids to plants not containing iridoids has happened three times independently. The results show that the evolution of host-plant use in melitaeines has been (and still is) a dynamic process when considering plant taxonomy, but is relatively stable when consider...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jun 30, 2010·Oecologia·Heikki PöykköMarko Hyvärinen
Sep 14, 2007·Hereditas·Keith S BrownAnssi Saura
Jul 14, 2010·Molecular Biology and Evolution·Marcelo M Brandão, Marcio C Silva-Filho
Jul 9, 2010·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·James A Fordyce
Aug 23, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·María-José EndaraThomas A Kursar
Dec 18, 2018·Journal of Morphology·Takao K SuzukiHideki Sezutsu
Feb 21, 2002·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Conrad C LabandeiraPeter Wilf
Sep 25, 2003·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Carlos Lopez-VaamondeJames M Cook
Jul 10, 2008·Journal of Chemical Ecology·J H Reudler TalsmaS van Nouhuys
Aug 17, 2006·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·M F Braby, J W H Trueman
Jan 11, 2018·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Solomon Habtemariam
Mar 20, 2015·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Nate B HardyCarol D von Dohlen
Aug 4, 2004·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Gaël J KergoatJean-François Silvain
Jul 15, 2021·Ecology and Evolution·Corné F H van der LindenSabrina Simon
Nov 28, 2006·Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics·Marcelo M BrandãoSara T O Saad

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