Genetic integrity of four species of Leptidea (Pieridae, Lepidoptera) as sampled in sympatry in West Siberia.

ABSTRACT: In southern West Siberia, as many as four Leptidea Billberg, 1820 species are present sympatrically: Leptideaamurensis (Ménétriés, 1859), Leptideamorsei (Ménétriés, 1859), Leptideasinapis (Linnaeus, 1758) and Leptideajuvernica Williams, 1946. The two latter were recently recognised as nearly sibling species on morphological and molecular characters. Specimens intermediate as to their subtle diagnostic characters occurring in West Siberia and elsewhere were interpreted as resulted from limited introgression. This supposition was tested via populational morphological and molecular analysis of spring brood specimens of all the four species taken from a limited (4.5 × 0.2 km) area in the suburbs of Novosibirsk. The samples were analysed with respect to the genitalic morphology, external charac

SUBMITTER: Solovyev VI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4547032 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature