Investigating concordance among genetic data, subspecies circumscriptions and hostplant use in the nymphalid butterfly Polygonia faunus.

ABSTRACT: Subspecies are commonly used taxonomic units to formally describe intraspecific geographic variation in morphological traits. However, the concept of subspecies is not clearly defined, and there is little agreement about what they represent in terms of evolutionary units, and whether they can be used as reliably useful units in conservation, evolutionary theory and taxonomy. We here investigate whether the morphologically well-characterized subspecies in the North American butterfly Polygonia faunus are supported by genetic data from mitochondrial sequences and eight microsatellite loci. We also investigate the phylogeographic structure of P. faunus and test whether similarities in host-plant use among populations are related to genetic similarity. Neither the nuclear nor the mitochondrial

SUBMITTER: Kodandaramaiah U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3402543 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature