Vladimir Lukhtanov

Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences · Karyosystematics

Vladimir Lukhtanov delights in a treatise on the luminary's contribution to biology.

The reinforcement model of evolution argues that natural selection enhances pre-zygotic isolation between divergent populations or species by selecting against unfit hybrids or costly interspecific matings. Reinforcement is distinguished from other models that consider the formation of reproductive isolation to be a by-product of divergent evolutio...

Uncovering cryptic biodiversity is essential for understanding evolutionary processes and patterns of ecosystem functioning, as well as for nature conservation. As European butterflies are arguably the best-studied group of invertebrates in the world, the discovery of a cryptic species, twenty years ago, within the common wood white Leptidea sinapi...

DNA barcoding employs short, standardized gene regions (5' segment of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I for animals) as an internal tag to enable species identification. Prior studies have indicated that it performs this task well, because interspecific variation at cytochrome oxidase subunit I is typically much greater than intraspecific...

Species generally have a fixed number of chromosomes in the cell nuclei while between-species differences are common and often pronounced. These differences could have evolved through multiple speciation events, each involving the fixation of a single chromosomal rearrangement. Alternatively, marked changes in the karyotype may be the consequence o...

High resolution Figures 1-5

Butterfly chromosomes are holocentric, i.e., lacking a localized centromere. Potentially, this can lead to rapid karyotypic evolution through chromosome fissions and fusions, since fragmented chromosomes retain kinetic activity, while fused chromosomes are not dicentric. However, the actual mechanisms of butterfly genome evolution are poorly unders...

The Palearctic blue butterfly genus Pseudophilotes Beuret, 1958 is not homogenous regarding the morphology of its genital structures. For this reason, some of its species have been considered to be representatives of other genera of the subtribe Scolitantidina (subfamily Polyommatinae). Here, we address these taxonomic problems by analyzing the phy...

The Balkan Peninsula is one of the greatest hotspots for biodiversity in Europe. While the region has been investigated thoroughly, some parts remain understudied and may still harbour undiscovered diversity, even in well-studied organisms such as Lepidoptera. Here we investigated the group of the so-called anomalous blue butterflies, also known as...

The tribe Tomarini is represented by the sole genus Tomares, comprising about eight species distributed from the western Mediterranean to Central Asia. We carried out a multilocus phylogenetic and a biogeographical analysis to test the taxonomy of the genus by several molecular species delimitation methods and reveal patterns shaping the current di...

In the evolution of many organisms, periods of very slow genome reorganization (=chromosomal conservatism) are interrupted by bursts of numerous chromosomal changes (=chromosomal megaevolution). However, the patterns, mechanisms, and consequences of conservative and rapid chromosomal evolution are still poorly understood and widely discussed. Here...

Morphological characters of value in distinguishing Melitaea phoebe from M. ornata are exemplified from photographs of specimens from sympatric and partially synchronic populations in the Russian Federation and Slovenia. Type material of a number of subspecies classified as M. phoebe have been examined and confirmed as being subspecies of M. phoebe...

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have diversified via coevolution with plants and in response to dispersals following key geological events. These hypotheses have been poorly tested at the macroevolutionary scale because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets on global distributions and larval...

Parnassius apollonius (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)

In insects, two types of telomere length maintenance are known: telomerase-dependent, resulting in chromosome ends consisting of short nucleotide repeats (typically TTAGG), and telomerase-independent, resulting in chromosome ends consisting of long nucleotide repeats or transposon-like elements. However, only a few species have been previously stud...

Natural hybridization is rather widespread and common in animals and can have important evolutionary consequences. In terms of taxonomy, exploring hybridization and introgression is crucial in defining species boundaries and testing taxonomic hypotheses. In the present paper, we report on natural hybrid specimens between Ahlbergia frivaldszkyi (Led...

Once introduced into new area, invasive species can be expected to have low genetic diversity due to the founder effect. Here we tested this prediction using cytogenetic and molecular analysis of Armenian and Belarusian populations of Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say, 1824) and by comparing the results with those of native (Nor...

The tribe Tomarini is represented by the sole genus Tomares, comprising about eight species distributed from the western Mediterranean to Central Asia. We carried out a multilocus phylogenetic and a biogeographical analysis to test the taxonomy of the genus by several molecular species delimitation methods and reveal patterns shaping the current di...

Introgressive hybridization is more common in nature than previously thought, and its role and creative power in evolution is hotly discussed but not completely understood. Introgression occurs more frequently in sympatry between recently diverged taxa, or when the speciation process has not yet been completed. However, there are relatively few doc...

The divergent sympatric mitochondrial lineages within traditionally recognized species present a challenge regularly faced by taxonomists and evolutionary biologists. We encountered this problem when studying the Siberian geometrid moths, Alcis deversata and Thalera chlorosaria. Within each of these species we found two deeply diverged mitochondria...

The divergent sympatric mitochondrial lineages within traditionally recognized species present a challenge regularly faced by taxonomists and evolutionary biologists. We encountered this problem when studying the Siberian geometrid moths, Alcis deversata and Thalera chlorosaria. Within each of these species we found two deeply diverged mitochondria...

The species of the Melitaea ala Staudinger, 1881 complex are distributed in Central Asia. Here we show that this complex is a monophyletic group including the species, M. ala , M. kotshubeji Sheljuzhko, 1929 and M. enarea Fruhstorfer, 1917. The haploid chromosome number n=29 is found in M. ala and M. kotshubeji and is, most likely, a symplesiomorph...

Taxa are frequently labeled incertae sedis when their placement is debated at ranks above the species level, such as their subgeneric, generic or subtribal placement. This is a pervasive problem in groups with complex systematics due to difficulties in identifying suitable synapomorphies. In this study, we propose combining DNA barcodes with a mult...

The genus Hyponephele includes about 40 species distributed throughout the southern part of the Palaearctic area. Within this genus, the taxa of the H. lycaon-H. lupina species complex are similar with respect to the wing pattern and genitalia structure. Here we revise this group using analysis of butterfly morphology, DNA barcodes, and study of th...

Cryptic species represent a challenge for documenting global biodiversity. Even in well-studied groups, such as European butterflies, the application of integrative approaches has allowed the recognition of an unexpected number of cryptic taxa. Here, we combine the analysis of mitochondrial (cytochrome c oxidase I, COI) and nuclear (internal transc...

The Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) damone (Eversmann, 1841) species complex comprises from 5 to 8 species distributed in southeastern Europe and southern Siberia. Here we used chromosomal and DNA-barcode markers in order to test the taxonomic hypotheses previously suggested for this complex. We revealed that all taxa within this group demonstrate chromo...

Chromosomal and molecular analyses of rapidly evolving organisms such as Polyommatus Latreille, 1804 blue butterflies are essential for understanding their taxonomy and evolutionary history, and the studies of populations from their type localities are crucially important for resolving problems of nomenclature and species identity. Here we present...

Chromosomal and molecular analyses of rapidly evolving organisms such as Polyommatus Latreille, 1804 blue butterflies are essential for understanding their taxonomy and evolutionary history, and the studies of populations from their type localities are crucially important for resolving problems of nomenclature and species identity. Here we present...

Heterozygotes for major chromosomal rearrangements such as fusions and fissions are expected to display a high level of sterility due to problems during meiosis. However, some species, especially plants and animals with holocentric chromosomes, are known to tolerate chromosomal heterozygosity even for multiple rearrangements. Here, we studied male...

Davidina, an enigmatic butterfly genus described from China in the 19 th century, has for a long time been considered a member of the family Pieridae due to its pierid-like wing pattern. In the 20 th century, it was transferred to Satyridae (now subfamily Satyrinae of Nymphalidae) based on analysis of the structure of genitalia and placed next to t...

The Polyommatus butterflies have holocentric chromosomes, which are characterized by kinetic activity distributed along the entire chromosome length, and the highest range of haploid chromosome numbers (n) known within a single eukaryotic genus (from n = 10 to n = 226). Previous analyses have shown that these numbers most likely evolved gradually f...

Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) australorossicus, holotype, DK-27-97, n=23. Russia, Caucasus, Daghestan, Gimrinsky Range, Gunib, 1600-1800 m, 14 August 1997, A. Dantchenko leg. a, upperside, b underside

Davidina, an enigmatic butterfly genus described from China in the 19 th century, has been long time considered a member of the family Pieridae due to its pierid-like wing pattern. In the 20th century, it was transferred to the family Satyridae (now subfamily Satyrinae of Nymphalidae) based on analysis of genitalia structure and placed next to the...

S.Yu. Sinev (ed.). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Russia. Edition 2. St. Petersburg: Zoological Institute RAS, 2019. 448 с. The catalogue deals with the representatives of 97 families of Lepidoptera known by now from the territory of Russian Federation. On the total, 2251 genera and 9617 species (1039 genera and 5617 species of Microlepidoptera,...

Chromosomal data are important for taxonomists, cytogeneticists and evolutionary biologists; however, the value of these data decreases sharply if they are obtained for individuals with inaccurate species identification or unclear species identity. To avoid this problem, here we suggest linking each karyotyped sample with its DNA barcode, photograp...

Despite numerous attempts to reveal the phylogenetic position and taxonomic status of formally described entities, a large number of unresolved taxonomic problems still persist in the E. tyndarus group, mostly due to incomplete species and population sampling, especially in the eastern part of the group’s distribution. Here, we provide a COI barcod...

The karyotype of Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) eriwanensis Forster, 1960 from the type locality (“Eriwan” [Yerevan, Armenia]) and other localities in Armenia was investigated. The number of chromosomal elements (bivalents+ multivalents) observed in male meiosis I was found to vary from 29 to 34. In individuals with n = 34, all observed elements were re...

The karyotype of the blue butterflies from the Angarskiy Pass (Crimea), previously attributed to Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) poseidon (Herrich-Schäffer, 1851), was reexamined. In all 19 studied individuals, we found the haploid chromosome number n = 26, including 7 pairs of relatively large and 19 pairs of relatively small chromosomes. According to t...

The potentials and limitations of different approaches to revealing species boundaries and describing cryptic species are discussed. Both the traditional methods of species delimitation, mostly based on morphological analysis, and the approaches using molecular markers are considered. Besides, the prospects of species identification using digital i...

В статье обсуждаются возможности и ограничения разных подходов к выявлению видовых границ и описанию криптических видов. Вначале рассматриваются более традиционные методы делимитации видов, основанные преимущественно на анализе морфологических особенностей. Затем дается обзор подходов к делимитации видов с использованием молекулярных маркеров. Коро...

The purpose of this application under Article 75.6 of the Code is to conserve the specific names of the European ‘Small Apollo’ butterfly Parnassius phoebus (Fabricius, 1793) and the Altai ‘Apollo’ butterfly Parnassius ariadne (Lederer, 1853) in their current usage. Hanus & Theye (2010) discovered that the traditional concept of the name P. phoebus...

Discordance between entities revealed by nuclear versus mitochondrial genes is a common phenomenon in evolutionary and taxonomic studies. However, little attention has been paid to analysis of how such discordant entities correspond to traditional species detected through investigation of their morphology, ecology, and distribution. Here, we used o...

In karyotype of many organisms, chromosomes form two distinct size groups: macrochromosomes and microchromosomes. During cell divisions, the position of the macro-and microchromosomes is often ordered within metaphase plate. In many reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects of the orthopteran family Tettigoniidae and in some plants, a so called "reptili...

This paper presents an updated checklist of the butterflies of Europe, together with their original name combinations, and their occurrence status in each European country. According to this checklist, 496 species of the superfamily Papilionoidea occur in Europe. Changes in comparison with the last version (2.6.2) of Fauna Europaea are discussed. C...

Historical records of Melitaea cinxia (Linnaeus, 1758) and M. arduinna (Esper, [1783]) from the mountains of Central Asia, including named subspecies and forms, are reviewed with particular reference to the name heynei Rühl, [1893], which has been associated with both of the aforementioned species. It is concluded that the name heynei should be ass...

Significance Changes in the number and/or structure of chromosomes (i.e., chromosomal rearrangements) have the potential to drive speciation. However, their accumulation in a population is considered both difficult and unpredictable, because the greatly reduced reproductive fitness of chromosomal hybrids prevents fixation of novel karyotypes. Here,...

Butterflies of the subgenus Agrodiaetus Hьbner, 1822, genus Polyommatus Latreille, 1804, are the model system in studies of speciation and karyotype evolution. A unique feature of the subgenus is the highest diversity in chromosome numbers in the animal kingdom. In Agrodiaetus the number of chromosomes is stable within species and differentiated be...

Background The Palaearctic butterfly genus Pseudophilotes Beuret, 1958 (Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae), that today occurs in North Africa and in Eurasia, includes ten described species with various distribution ranges, including endemics such as the Sardinian P. barbagiae. Phylogenetic relationships among these species are largely unresolved. In the pr...

Mitotic and meiotic chromosomes from 2 taxa of the genus Melinaea, M. satevis cydon and M. "satevis" tarapotensis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), and from hybrids produced in captivity were obtained using an improved spreading technique and were subsequently analyzed. In one of the taxa, the presence of trivalents and tetravalents at diakinesis/metapha...

Finding a new species is a rare event in easy-to-see and well-studied organisms like butterflies, especially if they inhabit well-explored areas such as the Western Palaearctic. However, even in this region, gaps in taxonomic knowledge still exist and here we report such a discovery. Using a combined analysis of chromosomal and molecular markers we...

DNA-barcoding has been suggested as a universal tool for molecular species identification; however, it cannot be applied in cases in which morphologically similar species share their DNA-barcodes due to common ancestry or mitochondrial introgression. Here we analyze the karyotype of Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) morgani from the region of its type loca...

Despite predictions of the classic, hybrid-sterility model of chromosomal speciation, some organisms demonstrate high rate of karyotype evolution. This rate is especially impressive in Agrodiaetus butterflies that rapidly evolved the greatest chromosome number diversity known in animal kingdom within a single subgenus. Here we analyzed karyotype ev...

Specimens with intermediate morphology are often considered to be the result of ongoing interspecific hybridization; however, this conclusion is difficult to prove without analysis of chromosomal and/or molecular markers. In the butterfly genus Melitaea, such an intermediacy can be detected in male genitalia, and is more or less regularly observed...

The Balkan Peninsula represents one of the hottest biodiversity spots in Europe. However, the invertebrate fauna of this region is still insufficiently investigated, even in respect of such well-studied organisms as Lepidoptera. Here we use a combination of chromosomal, molecular and morphological markers to rearrange the group of so-called anomalo...

Despite multiple attempts to infer the higher-level phylogenetic relationships of skipper butterflies (Family Hesperiidae), uncertainties in the deep clade relationships persist. The most recent phylogenetic analysis included fewer than 30% of known genera and data from three gene markers. Here we reconstruct the higher-level relationships with a r...

It is generally accepted that cases of species’ polyphyly in COI trees arising as a result of deep intraspecific divergence are negligible, and the detected cases reflect misidentifications or/and methodological errors. Here we studied the problem of species’ non-monophyly through chromosomal and molecular analysis of butterfly taxa close to Melita...

Saturation curve of 3rd codon positions on F84 sequence distance. Transitions: s; blue cross and transversions: v; green triangle. For all genes, the curve saturate at higher sequence divergence or when the genetic distances between sequences increase. (The saturation curves for CAD and GAPDH are not shown because of consistent technical error duri...

Newly designed primer pairs for an IDH (Isocitrate dehydrogenase) amplicon in Hesperiidae. This primer pair, along with attached universal tail (T7 promoter and T3) were tested at annealing temperature 55 °C.