Chromosomal and DNA barcode analysis of the Melitaea ala Staudinger, 1881 species complex (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)

Abstract

The species of the Melitaea ala Staudinger, 1881 complex are distributed in Central Asia. Here we show that this complex is a monophyletic group including the species, M. ala, M. kotshubeji Sheljuzhko, 1929 and M. enarea Fruhstorfer, 1917. The haploid chromosome number n=29 is found in M. ala and M. kotshubeji and is, most likely, a symplesiomorphy of the M. ala complex. We show that M. ala consists of four subspecies: M. ala zaisana Lukhtanov, 1999 (=M. ala irtyshica Lukhtanov, 1999, syn. nov.) (South Altai, Zaisan Lake valley), M. ala ala (Dzhungarian Alatau), M. ala bicolor Seitz, 1908 (North, East, Central and West Tian-Shan) and M. ala determinata Bryk, 1940 (described from “Fu-Shu-Shi”, China). We demonstrate that M. kotshubeji kotshubeji (Peter the Great Mts in Tajikistan) and M. kotshubeji bundeli Kolesnichenko, 1999 (Alai Mts in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan) are distinct taxa despite their geographic proximity in East Tajikistan. Melitaea enarea is widely distributed in the southern part of Central Asia and is sympatric with M. kotshubeji.

Genomic introgression from a distant congener in the Levant fritillary butterfly, Melitaea acentria

“…Additional 47 samples (Table S1; Lukhtanov, 2017;Pazhenkova & Lukhtanov, 2016;Wahlberg & Zimmermann, 2000) were used for study of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) diversity and phylogeographic analysis of the Melitaea persea species complex, which is a monophyletic lineage within the genus Melitaea (Lukhtanov et al, 2021). These 47 samples represent all described species (except for the little known Melitaea eberti from Iran) and numerous populations of the M. persea species complex as well as M. didyma from Israel.…”