Diversification linked to larval host plant in the butterfly Eumedonia eumedon.

ABSTRACT: It is widely accepted that the relationship between phytophagous insects and their host plants influences insect diversification. However, studies addressed at documenting host-associated genetic differentiation (HAD) and the mechanisms that drive reproductive isolation in host-associated lineages (or host races) are still scarce relative to insect diversity. To uncover further evidence on the HAD processes in Lepidoptera, we investigated the genetic structure of the geranium argus butterfly (Eumedonia eumedon) and tested for isolation by ecology (IBE) vs. isolation by distance (IBD). Genomic data revealed an array of host races (three of them in the same mountain range, the Cantabrian Mountains, northern Iberia) at apparently distinct levels of reproductive isolation. We found a pattern o

SUBMITTER: Hinojosa JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10092595 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature