Phylogeography of Parnassius apollo: hints on taxonomy and conservation of a vulnerable glacial butterfly invader

Abstract

Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758) is probably the most renowned Eurasian montane butterfly. Its specialized ecology makes it very sensitive to habitat and climate changes, so that it is now experiencing range contraction and local extinction across most of its range. We sequenced 869 bp of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome oxidase I gene in 78 P. apollo populations (201 individuals) in order to: (1) assess the phylogeographic pattern of the species; (2) shed light on the historical biogeographic processes that shaped the distribution of the species; and (3) identify geographic population units of special value for the conservation of the species' genetic diversity. Our analyses revealed a very strong phylogeographic structure in P. apollo, which displays a number of distinctive mtDNA lineages populating geographically distinct areas. Overall sequence divergence is relatively shallow, and is consistent with a recent (late Pleistocene) colonization of most of the range. We propose that P. apollo is best viewed as an atypical glacial invader in southern and western Europe, the isolated, montane populations of which, threatened by climate warming, retain a large fraction of the species evolutionary heritage. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101, 169–183

Parnassius apollo nevadensis: identification of recent population structure and source–sink dynamics

“…All loci were tested for deviation from HardyÐWeinberg equilibrium (HWE) for each location using GENEPOP. The frequency of null alleles was estimated for each locus in samples from each sampling location using CERVUS v3.0.3 (Kalinowski et al 2007) and MICRO-CHECKER 2.2.3 software (van Oosterhout et al 2004). …”

“…Another cause for the decline of P. apollo populations could be related to the fact that their populations are locally distributed due to their specific ecological requirements (Fred and Brommer 2005;Fred et al 2006). The species is consequently very sensitive to habitat alteration and climate change (Ashton et al 2009;Todisco et al 2010), and thus a high priority for conservation. Accordingly, P. apollo is categorized as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Baillie et al 1996), listed in the European Red Data Book (van Swaay and Warren 1999), and in Annex IV of Appendix II of the Habitat Directive of the European Union (EEC 92/43/EWG), is presently included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lists and is considered to be subject to High climate change Risk (HR) (Settele et al 2008).…”

“…Parnassius apollo populations are particularly small and isolated in the south of Europe, where their distribution is restricted to mountain ranges (Descimon 1995;Todisco et al 2010). In Spain, 23 subspecies of P. apollo have been described (G-mez-Bustillo and Fern ‡ndez-Rubio 1973) and each one of these subspecies is isolated in a different mountain range.…”

Dos and Don’ts for butterflies of the Habitats Directive of the European Union

“…(Ashton et al 2009;Deschamps-Cottin et al 1997;Fred and Brommer 2003;Fred and Brommer 2005;Fred et al 2006;Geyer and Dolek 2001;Nakonieczny et al 2007;Todisco et al 2010;Witkowski et al 1997) Papilio hospiton Guenée, 1839 E: Corsican Swallowtail F: Le Porte-queue de Corse D: Korsischer Schwalbenschwanz…”

Phylogeography of Koramius charltonius (Gray, 1853) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae): a case of too many poorly circumscribed subspecies

“…Black circles -type localities of described subspecies with no DNA sampled by us (mined from GenBank); black circles with grey ovals -type localities with sampled specimens (paratypes or topotypes). For numbers see Recently the phylogeography of several Parnassiinae species has been studied using DNA markers (Gratton and Sbordoni 2005;Gratton et al 2006Gratton et al , 2008Todisco et al 2010Todisco et al , 2012. Almost all published research concerning Parnassiinae phylogeography supports the refugial theory of their dispersal across the Palaearctic Region.…”