Testing biennialism in the butterfly Erebia palarica (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) by mtDNA sequencing

Abstract

The montane butterfly Erebia palarica has an unconfirmed life-cycle length. The genus Erebia shows variability in length of diapause depending on latitude and altitude, which may lead to allochronic differentiation. To test for biennialism and possible asynchronous differentiation, we sequenced the most variable fragments of the mitochondrial control region and the cytochrome oxidase I in forty individuals from the same population, from two consecutive years. No differentiation between cohorts could be detected and therefore the idea of a current annual cycle is supported. We conclude that a biennial cycle may never have been important in this population and we further discuss adaptive strategies this species may have used to confront colder climates.

From the Phylogeny of the Satyrinae Butterflies to the Systematics of Euptychiina (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): History, Progress and Prospects

“…Due to their biology, diversity and distribution, Satyrinae is a dominant group in most communities of butter lies (DeVries 1994, DeVries et al 1997, Brown & Freitas 2000, Pyrcz & Wojtusiak 2002, Tobar et al 2002, Ribeiro et al 2008, Vu 2009). The subfamily has species that exhibit special af inity for certain types of vegetation as open areas, primary or secondary forest (DeVries et al 1997), being considered useful indicators of ecosystem characteristics (Kremen 1992, UeharaPrado et al 2007 and used in population studies (Vila & Björklund 2004, Schmitt et al 2005, Besold et al 2008 and conservation biology (Dennis & Eales 1997, Bergman 1999.…”

Characterization of ten polymorphic microsatellite markers for the endemic Chapman's ringlet, Erebia palarica (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

“…These loci, although variable enough to reveal signficant differentiation of a population whose haplotypes form a divergent mitochondrial lineage, are unable to resolve the population structure at other localities (mean number of alleles per locus within populations ranged from 2.0 to 2.8, and the overall number of alleles per locus was three or four). These same loci are monomorphic in E. palarica (Vila & Björklund, 2004).…”

Mitochondrial DNA-based phylogeography of the large ringlet Erebia euryale (Esper, 1805) suggests recurrent Alpine-Carpathian disjunctions during Pleistocene (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)

“…The second part that we amplified, from here on indicated as the 3'P fragment, has a 32 bp overlap with the 5'P fragment, and a target length of 870 bp. This fragment was amplified with forward primer SeqInt-COIf (5'CWT CWT TTT TTG AYC CAG CWG GAG 3') and reverse primer LepLEUr (5' CCA TTA CWT ATA RTC TGC CAT ATT 3') (Vila and Björklund 2004). M13 forward (5' TGT AAA ACG ACG GCC AGT 3') or reverse (5' CAG GAA ACA GCT ATG AC 3') tails were attached to the forward and reverse primers respectively, and used for sequencing.…”