Source Themes

Phylogeography of an endemic California silkmoth genus suggests the importance of an unheralded central California province in generating regional endemic biodiversity

All three species show pronounced evidence of isolation and, in two cases, secondary reconnection. An unexpected monophyletic mtDNA lineage was found in the Central Coast region, in a region thought to represent an intergrade between C. mendocino and C. walterorum.. Our results add to a currently under-appreciated pattern suggesting that coastal Central California is not a transition zone between Northern and Southern California Floristic Province faunas but rather its own unique, periodically isolated, biogeographic region.

First confirmed record of leaf mining in the fruitworm moths (Carposinidae): a new species feeding on an endemic Hawaiian Clermontia (Campanulaceae)

Carposina hahaiella represents the first confirmed record of leaf mining in the fruitworm moth family, adding to a remarkable variety of larval habits in Carposinidae.

Evaluating DNA Barcoding for species identification and discovery in European gracillariid moths

Here we explore the use of DNA barcodes as a tool for identification and species discovery in European gracillariids. We present a barcode library including 6,791 COI sequences representing 242 of the 263 (92%) resident species.

DNA barcodes and reliable molecular identifications in a diverse group of invasive pests: lessons from Bactrocera fruit flies on variation across the COI gene, introgression, and standardization

Where previous studies showed limited success in using COI to identify Dacini, our results with a highly curated morphological dataset indicate high congruence between morphology and COI: 90% of the species in our 5,576 sequences, 262-species global dataset can be identified with COI alone based on a monophyly criterion.

The Dacini fruit fly fauna of Sulawesi fits Lydekker’s line but also supports Wallacea as a biogeographic region (Diptera, Tephritidae)

The biogeographic affinity of species in the updated checklist reveals a strong connection with former ‘Sunda’ (41% of species); validating Lydekker’s line, but also a high level of endemism (47% of species), confirming the uniqueness of Wallacea as a biogeographic region.

The intraspecific structure of the Yellow-spotted ringlet Erebia manto (Denis & Schiffermüller, [1775]), with special reference to the bubastis group: an integration of morphology, allozyme and mtDNA data (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

Present-day intraspecific diversity has largely been shaped by previous climatic events, but the spatial and temporal scales of differentiation processes in most species remain to be clarified. In Europe, the Pleistocene glacial cycles have generated population structures that remain especially evident in montane taxa.

The paradoxical rarity of a fruit fly fungus attacking a broad range of hosts

Understanding the factors that determine the realized and potential distribution of a species requires knowledge of abiotic, physiological, limitations as well as ecological interactions.

Highly variable COI haplotype diversity between three species of invasive pest fruit fly species reflects remarkably incongruent demographic histories

Distance decay principles predict that species with larger geographic ranges would have greater intraspecific genetic diversity than more restricted species. However, invasive pest species may not follow this prediction

Systematics and biogeography reciprocally illuminate taxonomic revisions in the silkmoth genus Saturnia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)

The Holarctic Saturniid genus Saturnia contains eight subgenera, though their taxonomic ranks have been in flux for decades. A prior biogeographic analysis with a six gene molecular phylogeny of Saturnia including 34 species and representatives of all but one subgenus supports distinct divisions that require taxonomic changes

In and out of America: Ecological and species diversity in Holarctic giant silkmoths suggests unusual dispersal, defying the dogma of an Asian origin

There is growing evidence that the North Atlantic Land Bridge may have had a significant, underappreciated, role in structuring northern hemispheric biodiversity.