Molecular Population Structure ofJunoniaButterflies from French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique

Abstract

Up to 9 described species of Junonia butterflies occur in the Americas, but authorities disagree due to species similarities, geographical and seasonal variability, and possible hybridization. In dispute is whether Caribbean Junonia are conspecific with South American species. Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) barcodes, wingless (wg) sequences, and Randomly Amplified Fingerprints (RAF) were studied to reveal Junonia population structure in French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Argentina. Phylogenetic analysis of COI recovered 2 haplotype groups, but most Junonia species can have either haplotype, so COI barcodes are ambiguous. Analysis of nuclear wingless alleles revealed geographic patterns but did not identify Junonia species. Nuclear RAF genotyping distinguished 11 populations of Junonia arranged into 3 clusters. Gene flow occurs within clusters but is limited between clusters. One cluster included all Argentinian samples. Two clusters included samples from French Guiana, Martinique, and Guadeloupe and appear to be divided by larval host plant use (Lamiales versus Scrophulariales). Many Junonia taxa were distributed across populations, possibly reflecting patterns of genetic exchange. We had difficulty distinguishing between the Caribbean forms J. zonalis and J. neildi, but we demonstrate that Caribbean Junonia are genetically distinct from South American J. evarete and J. genoveva, supporting the taxonomic hypothesis that they are heterospecific.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the lemon pansy Junonia lemonias (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae)

“…Finally, while it is now clear that the genus Junonia originated and diversified in Africa, followed by an emigration event to southeast Asia where a secondary radiation took place (Kodandaramaiah and Wahlberg, 2007;Gaikwad et al, 2012), there is still some ambiguity about the colonization history of the New World by this genus (Gemmell et al, 2014;Gemmell and Marcus, 2015) and hypotheses for the colonization of the New World from either Africa or Asia have been proposed (Eliot, 1946;Forbes, 1947). Thus far, only mitochondrial genomes from Asian Junonia species have been sequenced, so it would be highly beneficial to begin accumulating data from African and New World species as well.…”

“…The mixture was then incubated in a 55°C water bath for 1 h until the tissue was lysed. The sample was loaded into a Qiagen QiaCube (Qiagen, Düsseldorf, Germany) extraction robot and processed using the standard instrument protocol for purification of total DNA from animal tissue (Gemmell et al, 2014). DNA yield and quality was checked on a NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, Wilmington, Delaware, USA) and a Qubit 2.0 fluorometer (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, California, USA).…”

“…In many cases, these DNA fragments show deep mitochondrial divergences within species (Kodandaramaiah, 2009) and identical or nearly identical shared haplotypes between species (Brévignon and Brévignon, 2012;Pfeiler et al, 2012;Borchers and Marcus, 2014). This is possibly due to the lack of sequence evolution as a result of recent divergence, failure of coalescence, or lateral transfer events and organelle capture Gemmell et al, 2014). By assembling additional mitochondrial genome sequences from multiple Junonia species, conducting further phylogenetic analyses, and comparing the resulting phylogenies with trees derived from other types of data, it should be possible to distinguish between these alternatives.…”

“…However, Corchorus produces cycloartane triterpene glucosides (Ahmad et al), and Cannabis produces both terpenoids and cannabinoids, all of which have chemical similarities to iridoid glycosides (Turner et al, 1980;ElSohly and Slade, 2005) and may play a similar role in Junonia-larval host interactions. Specialization on host plants with different combinations of iridoid glycosides has been implicated as playing a role in both host race formation (Camara, 1997) and cladogenesis (Gemmell et al, 2014) in this genus.…”

<b>A taxonomic study of six species of the genus <I>Junonia</I> Hübner, [1819] (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the northwestern Himalayan region in India</b>

“…Numerous studies at the molecular level have been initiated but no emphasis has been laid down on the genitalic attributes of the species of this genus (Vanlalruati et al 2011;Gemmell et al 2014;Win et al 2015). Recent taxonomic review of the tribe Junoniini from Myanmar given by Win et al (2016) included only adult descriptions, whereas important taxonomic characters of the external genitalia and wing venations have not been discussed.…”