Natural hybridization in heliconiine butterflies: the species boundary as a continuum.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To understand speciation and the maintenance of taxa as separate entities, we need information about natural hybridization and gene flow among species.

Results

Interspecific hybrids occur regularly in Heliconius and Eueides (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) in the wild: 26-29% of the species of Heliconiina are involved, depending on species concept employed. Hybridization is, however, rare on a per-individual basis. For one well-studied case of species hybridizing in parapatric contact (Heliconius erato and H. himera), phenotypically detectable hybrids form around 10% of the population, but for species in sympatry hybrids usually form less than 0.05% of individuals. There is a roughly exponential decline with genetic distance in the numbers of natural hybrids in collecti

SUBMITTER: Mallet J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1821009 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature