Flight over the Proto-Caribbean seaway: Phylogeny and macroevolution of Neotropical Anaeini leafwing butterflies

The roles of wing color pattern and geography in the evolution of Neotropical Preponini butterflies

“…Although we found no evidence for color pattern shifts being important in diversification, different responses to major geological events suggest that exploring other possible ecological traits as correlates of diversification could be profitable. Differences in natural history, and in particular larval host plant relationships, potentially underlie the differing biogeographical patterns within Preponini, as demonstrated in the closely related Neotropical charaxine tribe Anaeini (Toussaint et al., 2019). Unfortunately, knowledge of host plants in Preponini is still rather incomplete, although, researchers, collectors, and enthusiasts are working together to fill this gap in knowledge.…”

“…The most studied functions of color include mimicry, predator avoidance, mate recognition, and sexual selection, and these functions are thought to have influenced diversification (Chazot et al., 2014; Jiggins, 2008; Kemp, 2007; Obara & Majerus, 2000). Similarly, novel habitats and barriers to dispersal created by Neotropical landscape rearrangement have influenced the evolution of a number of butterfly groups (Chazot et al., 2016, 2019; Condamine et al., 2012; De‐Silva et al., 2016, 2017; Toussaint et al., 2019). The increasing availability of comprehensive dated phylogenetic hypotheses for butterflies (Chazot et al, 2020; Espeland et al., 2018) allows a more rigorous study of how different, and potentially conflicting, functions of color have generated trait and species distributions and diversity (Finkbeiner et al., 2014).…”

Mesoamerica is a cradle and the Atlantic Forest is a museum of Neotropical butterfly diversity: Insights from the evolution and biogeography of Brassolini (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

“…Amazonia has been the main source of Neotropical vertebrate and plant species diversity by means of dispersal during the past 60 million years (Antonelli et al ., 2018a). Rapid species diversification of some butterfly groups occurred there since at least the Oligocene (e.g., Matos-Maraví et al ., 2013; Chazot et al ., 2016; Toussaint et al ., 2019), and old lineages might have gradually accumulated in Amazonia since that time (Peña et al ., 2010; Condamine et al ., 2012). However, more recent diversification episodes supporting Amazonia as alternating museum and cradle of diversity could have been triggered by paleoenvironmental changes during the Miocene (Antonelli et al ., 2009; Antonelli & Sanmartín, 2011; Chazot et al ., 2019b).…”

“…By the Plio-Pleistocene, speciation in Mesoamerica and NW Andes seems to have increased and surpassed the speciation rate in the Atlantic Forest. Biotic dispersal into Mesoamerica from South America (e.g., Mullen et al ., 2011; Bacon et al ., 2015) and butterfly dispersal from Central America to other Neotropical areas (Toussaint et al ., 2019) likely occurred throughout most of the Miocene facilitated by land availability, with Uranium-lead dating confirming that segments of the Panama arc had already emerged by 13–15 Mya (Montes et al ., 2015). However, only at the end of the Pliocene ∼3 to 4 Mya did shallow seawaters fully recede from the region (Coates et al ., 2004; Montes et al ., 2012; O’Dea et al ., 2016; Jaramillo et al ., 2017b), thus increasing opportunities for terrestrial species diversification in lowland areas that were sporadically inundated by seawater during the Miocene (Hosner et al ., 2016).…”

“…Mammals and birds in Neotropical biodiversity hotspots, including the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and rainforests in Mesoamerica and the neighboring Chocó in the northwestern side of the Andes (Myers et al ., 2000), apparently underwent rapid diversification (Igea & Tanentzap, 2019). In other groups, a larger number of lineages seem to have dispersed out of those areas compared to the rest of the Neotropics (e.g., Machado et al ., 2018; Toussaint et al ., 2019), suggesting that such rainforests are both cradles and sources of diversity (Igea & Tanentzap, 2019). Other Neotropical regions are, in contrast, museums of diversity given the old and gradual accumulation of species through time, such as Amazonia for Euptychiina (Nymphalidae) (Peña et al ., 2010) and Troidini butterflies (Papilionidae) (Condamine et al ., 2012).…”