Global climate cooling spurred skipper butterfly diversification
Characterizing drivers governing the diversification of species-rich lineages is challenging. Although butterflies are one of the most well-studied groups of insects, there are few comprehensive studies investigating their diversification dynamics. Here, we reconstruct a phylogenomic tree for ca. 1,500 species in the family Hesperiidae, the skippers, to test whether historical global climate change, geographical range evolution, and host-plant association are drivers of diversification. Our findings suggest skippers originated in Laurasia before the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, in a northern region centered on Beringia before colonizing southern regions coinciding with global climate cooling. Climate cooling also fostered the diversification of skippers throughout the Cenozoic possibly by fueling biome transitions from closed to open ecosystems such as grasslands. An early shift from dicot-feeding to monocot-feeding reduced extinction rates and increased speciation rates, explaining the large diversity of grass-feeding adapted skippers. A dynamic geographic range evolution and host-plant shifts linked with long-term climate change explain skipper butterfly diversification.
Authors
- Michael F. Braby (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5438-587X)
- Hideyuki Chiba (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9060-6441)
- Djunijanti Peggie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2718-1281)
- Marianne Espeland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6800-4783)
- Roger Vila (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2447-4388)
- Kelly M. Dexter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5136-6083)
- Jesse W. Breinholt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3867-2430)
- Fabien L. Condamine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1673-9910)
- Akito Y. Kawahara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3724-4610)
- Emmanuel F. A. Toussaint (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8439-1285)
- Chandra Earl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9850-882X)
- David J. Lohman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0689-2906)
- Naomi E. Pierce (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3366-1625)
- Kwaku Aduse‐Poku (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0158-9801)
- Masaya Yago (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2168-9009)
- David Plotkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2339-655X)
- Szabolcs Sáfián (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0614-4203)
- Andrew Warren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6730-1938)
- Ana Paula S. Carvalho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3245-3648)
- Ana Beatriz Barros de Morais (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4621-7518)
- Riley J. Gott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8487-3524)
- Chris Müller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7172-6608)
- E. Ann Ellis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3343-0923)
- Kiyoshi Maruyama
Institutions
- Intermountain Healthcare (US)
- Australian National University (AU)
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- National Museum of the Philippines (PH)
- Florida Museum of Natural History (US)
- Museum für Naturkunde (DE)
- Bernice P. Bishop Museum (US)
- Australian Museum (AU)
- Butterfly Conservation (GB)
- Harvard University (US)
- Howard University (US)
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- City University of New York (US)
- Center for Plant Conservation (US)
- Natural History Museum of Geneva (CH)
- Tokyo National Museum (JP)
- University of Florida (US)
- Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (BR)
- Australian National Insect Collection (AU)
- Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (DE)
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (FR)
- Evolutionary Genomics (United States) (US)
- University of Tokyo Hospital (JP)
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (ES)
- Edo Tokyo Museum (JP)
- National Research and Innovation Agency (ID)
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (DE)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Tokyo Metropolitan University (JP)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- University of Sopron (HU)
- Colorado State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Systematic Biology
- Published
- 2025-07-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syaf029
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.27
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- University of Florida
- European Commission
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science