Around the World in 26 Million Years: Diversification and Biogeography of Pantropical Grass‐Yellow <i>Eurema</i> Butterflies (Pieridae: Coliadinae)

ABSTRACT Aim Grass‐yellow butterflies ( Eurema ) are a group of pantropical Pieridae distributed throughout Asia, Australasia, Africa and the New World. However, little is known about their diversification, including the biogeographic mechanism(s) explaining their circumglobal distribution. We present the first densely sampled, time‐calibrated phylogeny and biogeographic reconstruction of grass‐yellows to confirm the monophyly of the genera, re‐evaluate their taxonomy and infer the biogeographic events contributing to their worldwide distribution. Location Global tropics and subtropics. Taxon The butterfly tribe Euremini (Pieridae: Coliadinae). Methods We analysed up to 391 genetic loci from 126 samples of 66 ingroup species. Divergence dating was accomplished in a Bayesian phylogenetic framework using secondary calibration points, and maximum likelihood models of various biogeographic models were fitted to the data using the R package BioGeoBEARS. We used the best fitting model to estimate relative dispersal events with biogeographical stochastic mapping. Finally, we estimated branch‐specific speciation and extinction rates to assess the diversification history of the group. Results Different phylogenomic analyses converged on similar topologies with robust support. Grass‐yellows emerged ca . 26 Mya in the New World, and a single extant lineage dispersed to Asia in the early Miocene, where they diversified and dispersed to Africa and Australasia. The fastest rates of diversification occurred in the Old World tropics during the late Miocene. Many of the grass‐yellow genera were either paraphyletic or polyphyletic as traditionally circumscribed. To maintain nomenclatural stability, we place all grass‐yellows in Eurema sensu lato and recognise two subgenera: Eurema ( Abaeis ) and Eurema ( Eurema ). Main Conclusions Grass‐yellow butterflies originated in the Americas and attained their global distributional patterns via dispersal. The Indo‐Australian and Caribbean archipelagoes seem to have accelerated the diversification of the group, and movement in and out of these island regions was frequent. Although the traditional view of founder‐event speciation envisions migrants from large landmasses (‘mainland’) colonising smaller landmasses (‘islands’), we find that island to mainland dispersal and differentiation were equally or more common.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Biogeography
Published
2025-02-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.15107
Citations
5
Primary Topic
Plant and animal studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
15.13

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article

Around the World in 26 Million Years: Diversification and Biogeography of Pantropical Grass‐Yellow Eurema Butterflies (Pieridae: Coliadinae)

Alma B. Mohagan, Pável F. Matos‐Maraví, Renato Nunes, Rayner Núñez Águila et al.
5 citations
Journal of Biogeography
Plant and animal studies
15.13
article

Around the World in 26 Million Years: Diversification and Biogeography of Pantropical Grass‐Yellow Eurema Butterflies (Pieridae: Coliadinae)

Alma B. Mohagan, Pável F. Matos‐Maraví, Renato Nunes, Rayner Núñez Águila, Michael F. Braby, Niklas Wahlberg, Jing Vir Leong, Yutaka Inayoshi, Krushnamegh K. Kunte, Djunijanti Peggie, Yu‐Feng Hsu, Akito Y. Kawahara, Dave P. Mohagan, Dino J. Martins, David J. Lohman, Naomi E. Pierce, Tenzing Doleck, Kwaku Aduse‐Poku, Szabolcs Sáfián, Antonio R. Pérez‐Asso, Julio A. Genaro, Weijun Liang
article en
5 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aim Grass‐yellow butterflies ( Eurema ) are a group of pantropical Pieridae distributed throughout Asia, Australasia, Africa and the New World. However, little is known about their diversification, including the biogeographic mechanism(s) explaining their circumglobal distribution. We present the first densely sampled, time‐calibrated phylogeny and biogeographic reconstruction of grass‐yellows to confirm the monophyly of the genera, re‐evaluate their taxonomy and infer the biogeographic events contributing to their worldwide distribution. Location Global tropics and subtropics. Taxon The butterfly tribe Euremini (Pieridae: Coliadinae). Methods We analysed up to 391 genetic loci from 126 samples of 66 ingroup species. Divergence dating was accomplished in a Bayesian phylogenetic framework using secondary calibration points, and maximum likelihood models of various biogeographic models were fitted to the data using the R package BioGeoBEARS. We used the best fitting model to estimate relative dispersal events with biogeographical stochastic mapping. Finally, we estimated branch‐specific speciation and extinction rates to assess the diversification history of the group. Results Different phylogenomic analyses converged on similar topologies with robust support. Grass‐yellows emerged ca . 26 Mya in the New World, and a single extant lineage dispersed to Asia in the early Miocene, where they diversified and dispersed to Africa and Australasia. The fastest rates of diversification occurred in the Old World tropics during the late Miocene. Many of the grass‐yellow genera were either paraphyletic or polyphyletic as traditionally circumscribed. To maintain nomenclatural stability, we place all grass‐yellows in Eurema sensu lato and recognise two subgenera: Eurema ( Abaeis ) and Eurema ( Eurema ). Main Conclusions Grass‐yellow butterflies originated in the Americas and attained their global distributional patterns via dispersal. The Indo‐Australian and Caribbean archipelagoes seem to have accelerated the diversification of the group, and movement in and out of these island regions was frequent. Although the traditional view of founder‐event speciation envisions migrants from large landmasses (‘mainland’) colonising smaller landmasses (‘islands’), we find that island to mainland dispersal and differentiation were equally or more common.

Journal of BiogeographyVol. 52(5)
Australian National University (AU), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (IN), The Graduate Center, CUNY (US), City College of New York (US), National Museum of the Philippines (PH), Florida Museum of Natural History (US), National Taiwan Normal University (TW), Harvard University (US), Howard University (US), University of Connecticut (US), City University of New York (US), Lund University (SE), National Centre for Biological Sciences (IN), Central Mindanao University (PH), University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (CZ), University of Florida (US), Australian National Insect Collection (AU), Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (DE), Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (DE), Czech Academy of Sciences, Biology Centre (CZ), Bavarian Natural History Collections (DE), Florida State Collection of Arthropods (US), National Research and Innovation Agency (ID), Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (DE), ACT Government (AU), Stony Brook University (US), University of Sopron (HU)
National Science Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, National Geographic Society, Fulbright Association, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, National Centre for Biological Sciences
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Plant and animal studies
15.13
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