Jessica Litman

Musée d'histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel · Entomology

The Palaearctic complex of anthidiine bees closely related to Pseudoanthidium scapulare has long been a source of unresolved taxonomic and systematic issues. Until now, the number of species in the complex and their geographical distributions were largely unclear, thus complicating the compilation of accurate species checklists and hindering conser...

Butterfly monitoring and Red List programs in Switzerland rely on a combination of observations and collection records to document changes in species distributions through time. While most butterflies can be identified using morphology, some taxa remain challenging, making it difficult to accurately map their distributions and develop appropriate c...

Neighbor joining (NJ) tree based on DNA barcodes for all specimens sequenced for this study. (PDF)

Melitaea athalia and M. nevadensis form reciprocally monophyletic barcode clusters. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Melitaea athalia and M. nevadensis present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or other...

Deep mitochondrial divergences in Zygaena filipendulae. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Zygaena filipendulae present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or otherwise modified. Numbers above certain nodes...

Analysis of European DNA barcodes for Erebia pronoe vergy and E. p. psathura. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Erebia pronoe present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or otherwise modified. Numbers abov...

Swiss populations of Kretania trappi are unique compared to Italian populations from the Alto Adige–Sudtirol. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Kretania trappi present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated o...

Para- and polyphyly within the Erebia tyndarus complex. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of the Erebia tyndarus complex present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or otherwise modified. The DNA barcode cann...

Deep mitochondrial divergences in Thymelicus lineola. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Thymelicus lineola present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or otherwise modified. Numbers above certain nodes rep...

Specimen list. Complete list of 868 specimens sequenced for this study, including collection information, unique specimen identifiers, associated CO1 sequences with BOLD process ID numbers and specimen deposition information. (XLSX)

Reference species list. Two-hundred twenty-four species were considered as Swiss residents for the purposes of this study. All changes from the Swiss Red List (Wermeille et al. 2014) have been noted. Species for which no sequences were obtained are marked in red. (XLSX)

Lycaena tityrus tityrus and L. t. subalpina form reciprocally monophyletic barcode clusters. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Lycaena tityrus present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or otherwise modif...

Para- and polyphyly within the Pyrgus alveus complex. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of the Pyrgus alveus complex present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study are shown in blue. All specimens are presented with the names they have been given on BOLD, i.e. no names have been updated or otherwise modified. The DNA barcode cannot d...

Swiss populations of Melitaea deione are unique in the western Palaearctic. NJ tree based on DNA barcodes for specimens of Melitaea deione present on BOLD. Specimens sequenced for this study, representing the Swiss subspecies M. d. berisalii, are shown in blue. Numbers above certain nodes represent NJ bootstrap values above 50% based on 100 bootstr...

Fideliine bees are an archaic group with a disjunct distribution mostly restricted to deserts of South America and South Africa. This group was previously thought to be more diverse in Africa than in South America, where only one genus (Neofidelia) comprising five species is known. Here we describe a species belonging to a second South American gen...

The bee tribe Anthidiini (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) is a large, cosmopolitan group of solitary bees that exhibit intriguing nesting behavior. We present the first molecular-based phylogenetic analysis of relationships within Anthidiini using model-based methods and a large, multi-locus dataset (five nuclear genes, 5081 base pairs), as well as a co...

A new species of Fidelia Friese, 1899 is described from southern Africa: Fidelia (Fideliopsis) whiteheadi Litman & Kuhlmann sp. nov. Diagnostic characters are provided to distinguish this species from others in the genus, particularly from the closely related F. hessei; an updated description for Fidelia hessei is also given. The host plant prefere...

The evolution of parasitic behavior may catalyze the exploitation of new ecological niches yet also binds the fate of a parasite to that of its host. It is thus not clear whether evolutionary transitions from free-living organism to parasite lead to increased or decreased rates of diversification. We explore the evolution of brood parasitism in lon...

Although a relatively small country, Switzerland contains multiple climatic zones and harbors remarkable levels of biodiversity (an estimated 50,000-70,000 species). DNA sequence data exist for very few groups and little is known about the genetic diversity that exists both within and among most species. To fill this gap, the Swiss Barcode of Life...

Stark contrasts in clade species diversity are reported across the tree of life and are especially conspicuous when observed in closely related lineages. The explanation for such disparity has often been attributed to the evolution of key innovations that facilitate colonization of new ecological niches. The factors underlying diversification in be...