ArticlePDF Available

A molecular phylogenetic analysis of Speyeria and its implications for the management of the threatened Speyeria zerene hippolyta

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

The genetic structure of lineages can provide important information for delineating “evolutionarily significant units” (ESUs) for conservation, and for planning actions to protect and restore taxa threatened with extinction. Speyeria zerene hippolyta, the Oregon silverspot butterfly, is a U.S.A. federally threatened subspecies that is the focus of considerable conservation effort, but whose evolutionary relationships with other Speyeria taxa are not well-understood. We conducted a genetic analysis of nine Speyeria species and 25 subspecies from western U.S.A., using both mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Our goal was to determine whether such data supported (a) S. z. hippolyta’s designation as an ESU, and (b) the current morphologically-based taxonomy of Speyeria spp. Our data for S. z. hippolyta were equivocal; while nuclear markers resolved all these individuals into a single clade, mtDNA data suggested the existence of two clades. Aside from S. cybele, which was consistently supported as monophyletic, our data provided little support for most of the species currently recognized for western U.S. Speyeria, including S. zerene, and even less for the many subspecies designations. These genetic findings stand in contrast to the morphological differences recognized by experts, and suggest a relatively recent origin for many of these taxa. Two of 66 individuals screened for Wolbachia infection tested positive for this symbiont. Our results provide no persuasive evidence that S. z. hippolyta should lose its status as an ESU, but they have important implications for ongoing management actions such as population augmentation.
Content may be subject to copyright.
ORIGINAL PAPER
A molecular phylogenetic analysis of Speyeria and its implications
for the management of the threatened Speyeria zerene hippolyta
Anne McHugh Paulette Bierzychudek
Christina Greever Tessa Marzulla
Richard Van Buskirk Greta Binford
Received: 16 May 2013 / Accepted: 9 October 2013
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
Abstract The genetic structure of lineages can provide
important information for delineating ‘‘evolutionarily sig-
nificant units’’ (ESUs) for conservation, and for planning
actions to protect and restore taxa threatened with extinction.
Speyeria zerene hippolyta, the Oregon silverspot butterfly, is
a U.S.A. federally threatened subspecies that is the focus of
considerable conservation effort, but whose evolutionary
relationships with other Speyeria taxa are not well-under-
stood. We conducted a genetic analysis of nine Speyeria
species and 25 subspecies from western U.S.A., using both
mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Our goal was to deter-
mine whether such data supported (a) S. z. hippolyta’s
designation as an ESU, and (b) the current morphologically-
based taxonomy of Speyeria spp. Our data for S. z. hippolyta
were equivocal; while nuclear markers resolved all these
individuals into a single clade, mtDNA data suggested the
existence of two clades. Aside from S. cybele, which was
consistently supported as monophyletic, our data provided
little support for most of the species currently recognized for
western U.S. Speyeria, including S. zerene, and even less for
the many subspecies designations. These genetic findings
stand in contrast to the morphological differences recog-
nized by experts, and suggest a relatively recent origin for
many of these taxa. Two of 66 individuals screened for
Wolbachia infection tested positive for this symbiont. Our
results provide no persuasive evidence that S. z. hippolyta
should lose its status as an ESU, but they have important
implications for ongoing management actions such as pop-
ulation augmentation.
Keywords ESU Evolutionarily significant unit
Lepidoptera Oregon silverspot butterfly Species
delineation Wolbachia
Introduction
Developing effective strategies for protecting and restoring
sensitive taxa requires that we be able to define and identify
those units in need of protection. It is widely recognized
that protected groups should represent distinctive evolu-
tionary histories and potentials (Moritz 1994), i.e. that they
be ‘‘evolutionarily significant units’’ (ESUs) (Waples 1991;
Crandall et al. 2000). Knowledge of the genetic structure of
lineages is an important complement to behavioral, mor-
phological, and ecological information in determining the
distinctiveness of groups (DeSalle and Amato 2004), the
A. McHugh P. Bierzychudek (&)C. Greever
T. Marzulla G. Binford
Department of Biology, Lewis & Clark College, 0615 S.W.
Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR 97219, USA
e-mail: bierzych@lclark.edu
C. Greever
e-mail: christina.greever@colorado.edu
Present Address:
A. McHugh
Department of Biology, University of Vermont, 109 Carrigan
Drive, Burlington, VT 05401, USA
Present Address:
C. Greever
University of Colorado, 3100 Marine Street, 563 UCB 35,
Boulder, CO 80303, USA
Present Address:
T. Marzulla
Oregon Health and Sciences University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson
Rd., Portland, OR 97239, USA
R. Van Buskirk
Department of Environmental Studies, Pacific University, 2043
College Way, Forest Grove, OR 97116, USA
123
J Insect Conserv
DOI 10.1007/s10841-013-9605-5
recognition of which can help guide management decisions
and set conservation priorities (Dayrat 2005).
The Oregon Silverspot Butterfly (Speyeria zerene hip-
polyta) provides one example of a group for which ambi-
tious conservation activities are underway even though
little is known about the population processes and histori-
cal biogeography that underlie its current distribution.
Listed in the U.S. as a threatened subspecies in 1980 (45
FR 44935–44939), S. z. hippolyta has been the focus of
considerable management efforts, including habitat
improvement as well as augmentation of low and/or
declining populations with captively reared larvae (Crone
et al. 2007). Some sites of extirpated populations are
undergoing habitat restoration in preparation for re-intro-
duction of individuals from other locations (U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service 2001). But little is known about the
genetic relationships among the five extant populations of
S. z. hippolyta in Oregon and northern California, nor is
there much information about their genetic relationships to
other subspecies of S. zerene or other species of Speyeria.
Speyeria are a North American group of Nymphalid
butterflies. The 16 recognized species (Pelham 2008;
Dunford 2009) were defined on morphological grounds by
dos Passos and Grey (1947), and are mostly distributed in
western North America. The larvae feed exclusively on
Viola spp. (Brittnacher et al. 1978; Hammond 1981), and
the ranges of various taxa are limited, in part, by the dis-
tribution of these plants. The group is notoriously variable
in wing pattern and color (Pyle 2002; Dunford 2009), and
this variation has formed the basis of numerous subspecies
designations. Adding to the complexity is the parallel
nature of the morphological variation observed among
sympatric taxa. Within the same region, species tend to be
similar in color and size. Differences between subspecies
from different regions sometimes exceed differences
observed among sympatric species (Hovanitz 1943). Con-
vergence in form within a region may be influenced by
selection favoring an advantageous phenotype, develop-
mental response to a common environment, a more recent
shared ancestry than the species designations indicate, or to
hybridization. While Brittnacher et al. (1978) report that
naturally occurring hybrids are rare, most subspecies and
even many species have successfully interbred under lab-
oratory conditions (Paul Hammond and David McCorkle,
personal communication, Feb 25, 2012). No key to the
group has been published (but see keys in Hammond 1978
and Dunford 2007), and only experts are able to reliably
identify individuals (Pyle 2002), even then requiring
Fig. 1 Map of collection locations. Three-letter geographical codes correspond to those used in the trees and in ‘Appendix 1’’
J Insect Conserv
123
knowledge of the geographic region from which they were
collected. Though a preliminary investigation of mito-
chondrial DNA variation was conducted by Dunford
(2007), Brittnacher et al.’s 1978 allozyme study of Cali-
fornia Speyeria remains the only published investigation of
genetic relationships among western North American
Speyeria to date.
In addition to the threatened S. z. hippolyta,Speyeria
includes three U.S. ‘‘endangered’’ subspecies, S. z. behrensii,
S. z. myrtleae, and S. callippe callippe, and two other taxa
regarded as vulnerable, S. z. bremnerii and S. idalia (Xerces
Society 2012). The taxonomic confusion characterizing
Speyeria raises the question of whether these taxa are as
genetically distinct as their protected status implies, and
suggests that a genetic analysis of Speyeria could provide
important information to help guide conservation efforts.
Many recent attempts to use genetic data to identify
ESUs have focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
markers, because the rapid rate at which variation accu-
mulates in the mitochondrial genome makes mtDNA useful
for assessing differences among closely related taxa. In
particular, much attention has been given to the potential of
a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase
subunit one (COI) gene to serve as a universal ‘‘barcode’
for identifying and delineating taxa (Hebert et al. 2003).
However, there are many reasons why variation within a
single locus, especially one from the mitochondrial genome,
might be a poor indicator of evolutionary patterns and pro-
cesses, both for organisms in general and for Lepidoptera in
particular (Wahlberg et al. 2003a,b; Gompert et al. 2006;
Forister et al. 2008; Wahlberg et al. 2009). For this reason our
genetic analysis employs both a mtDNA marker and several
nuclear markers. Because infection by the endosymbiont
Wolbachia has been known to complicate the interpretation
of patterns of mtDNA and to pose a threat to the persistence
of arthropod populations (Nice et al. 2009), we screened a
subset of our samples for evidence of Wolbachia infection.
Our goal is to develop a molecular phylogeny for the
Speyeria taxa in the western U.S., with a particular focus on
S. z. hippolyta and other subspecies of S. zerene, in order to
determine whether molecular phylogenetic data support S. z.
hippolyta’s designation as a distinctive evolutionary lineage.
This analysis also provides an opportunity to determine
whether the phylogenetic patterns we discover are coincident
with current taxonomy for other taxa in this group.
Methods
Taxon sampling
We attempted to include a representative sample of indi-
viduals of S. z. hippolyta, from both extant and extirpated
populations, a representative sample of most of the other
subspecies of S. zerene, and a sampling of other species of
Speyeria from across a wide geographic distribution. We
sampled a total of 121 Speyeria individuals from the
western United States (Fig. 1) and two outgroup speci-
mens, Brenthis daphne and Argynnis aglaja (‘Appendix
1’). Our sampling structure for individuals and populations
of species and subspecies is summarized in Table 1. Eighty
of the Speyeria individuals were collected for or donated to
this project by Paul C. Hammond, David McCorkle and
Anne McHugh. Thirty-two specimens were obtained from
the Arthropod Collection at Oregon State University
(OSU). Nine S. zerene specimens were provided by the
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the
Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida.
Table 1 Species, subspecies, and numbers of populations and indi-
viduals represented in the dataset
Speyeria
species
Subspecies Number of
populations
Number of
individuals
atlantis cornelia 13
dodgei 23
hesperis 12
nikias 12
sorocko 13
atlantis/hollandi
a
N/A 1 1
callippe elaine 13
semivirida 14
coronis snyderi 39*
cybele leto 3 15*
egleis egleis 14
macdunnoughi 16
hollandi hollandi 12
hydaspe hydaspe 13
purpurascens 16
sakuntala 14
mormonia artonis 29*
erinna 29*
zerene bremnerii 4 12*
conchyliatus 2 12*
gloriosa 3 16*
gunderi 3 11*
hippolyta 11 79*
picta 3 10*
platina 26
sinope 24
This table includes samples from both LC and RVB
* Includes multiple individuals possessing the same COII haplotype.
These are represented as single terminal taxa in our phylogenies. For
more information about haplotypes, contact RVB
a
Possible hybrid individual, according to Paul Hammond
J Insect Conserv
123
In addition to these 121 samples, mitochondrial sequence
data from 6 haplotypes representing 67 individuals of S.
zerene hippolyta were provided by Richard Van Buskirk
(RVB), either from individuals or tissue collected in
1995–1996 under USFWS permit number PRT-806058 or
from additional specimens from OSU. All collections of S.
z. hippolyta pre-dated the augmentations from other pop-
ulations currently taking place. RVB also provided mito-
chondrial sequence data from 45 additional haplotypes
representing 81 individuals of other Speyeria species and
subspecies. DNA vouchers of all specimens and DNA
samples (where available) have been archived at OSU.
DNA isolation
All genomic DNA isolated at Lewis & Clark College (LC)
was extracted from one leg using QIAgen’s DNEasy extrac-
tion kit, according to manufacturer’s instructions, except
eluted in 30 ll water. DNA was stored at -20 C. Genomic
DNA data provided by RVB came from wing tissue non-
destructively sampled from live individuals (for S. z. hippol-
yta), leg tissue (from museum specimens), or thorax muscle
(for all other live-caught specimens). This genomic DNA was
isolated using a proteinase digest followed by phenol–chlo-
roform extraction (for details see Van Buskirk 2000).
Gene selection
At LC, we amplified a single 1,410-base pair (bp) mtDNA
fragment that included two genes, cytochrome c oxidase
subunit I (COI) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (COII).
RVB amplified a 613 bp region of the COII subunit for some
individuals, and a 456 bpregion for others. To optimize taxon
inclusion while minimizing missing data, our phylogenetic
analysis used the 554 base pair region of COII that allowed
maximal overlap among these three datasets (see sequence
assembly and alignment section below). At LC we also
amplified four nuclear markers: glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate
dehydrogenase (GAPDH), ribosomal protein subunit 5
(RpS5), triosephosphate isomerase (TPI), and wingless.We
also amplified an 850 bp fragment of carbamoyl phosphate
synthetase 2, aspartate carbamyltransferase, dihydrorotase
(CAD) from a small but diverse subset of taxa, but did not
analyze this fragment because it lacked variability. All these
nuclear markers have proven to be informative at the species
level for Lepidoptera (Brower and DeSalle 1998;Beltra
´netal.
2002;Wahlbergetal.2003b;Regieretal.2008; Wah lberg and
Wheat 2008;Wahlbergetal.2009).
Molecular data acquisition
We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocols and
primers from several sources (‘Appendix 2’). We purified
post-PCR products using QIAgen PCR purification kits
(LC) or Millipore filtration tubes with double-distilled
water as a rinsing agent (RVB). We analyzed LC samples
with a Nanodrop 1000 Spectrophotometer for DNA con-
centration and sent them to the University of Arizona
Genetics Core for sequencing in two directions. RVB
samples were sequenced with an ABI377 Perkin-Elmer
automated sequencer.
Sequence assembly and alignment
We assembled the two strands for each fragment and
checked sequence quality using Sequencher 4.6. To confirm
amplification of the intended gene fragments, we subjected a
subset of assembled sequences to homology searches in
GenBank using BLASTn. We aligned sequences using the
online server for MUSCLE (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/
msa/muscle/; Edgar 2004) and used default alignments for
phylogenetic analyses. We viewed alignments, trimmed
ragged ends, and concatenated our multigene datasets (see
below) using Mesquite version 2.75 (Maddison and Madd-
ison 2011). The COI/COII fragments were trimmed after
alignment to the 554 nucleotides of COII that maximized
overlap between the regions amplified at LC and by RVB.
Preliminary analyses of the entire 1,410 base pair region of
COI/II amplified at LC resulted in nearly identical tree
topologies to those created using the shorter fragment;
minor discrepancies between the analyses do not affect our
conclusions. Sequences were deposited in GenBank
(Accession Numbers available from the authors).
Phylogenetic analyses
We reconstructed separate phylogenetic hypotheses (a) for
individual genes, (b) for a concatenated dataset of all
nuclear genes, and (c) for a concatenation of all genes,
nuclear and mitochondrial. Though our goal was to amplify
four nuclear genes, there were some taxa for which we
succeeded in amplifying only one (either wingless or RpS5,
‘‘ Appendix 1’). Preliminary analyses of concatenated
datasets that included taxa with single gene representation
yielded trees that placed these taxa in unresolved basal
polytomies. Therefore, our concatenated analyses only
include taxa for which we had sequences for two or more
genes. Most of the excluded taxa were S. zerene specimens
from OSU (‘Appendix 1’’) that were represented only by
wingless sequences, which were nearly invariant (Table 2).
We used jModelTest version 0.1.1 with the Bayesian
Information Criterion (BIC) to determine the optimal
model of evolution for each gene dataset. All phylogenetic
models were constructed using Bayesian inference as
implemented in MrBayes version 3.1.2 (Huelsenbeck and
Ronquist 2001; Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003), with
J Insect Conserv
123
model parameters optimized from the results of BIC. For
concatenated analyses we used separate model parameters
for each gene partition. All analyses were done with
10,000,000 Markov Chain Monte Carlo generations, saving
every 100th tree, with two iterations of four chains for each
analysis. We used Tracer version 1.5 (Rambaut and
Drummond 2007) to determine the appropriate burn-in
value, and in all cases discarded the first 10 % of saved
trees as burn-in. We assessed confidence in particular
clades using posterior probabilities.
In addition, we analyzed the data using parsimony,
neighbor joining, and maximum likelihood methods. These
resulted in either similar tree topologies as Bayesian
analyses or reduced resolution; therefore, for simplicity, we
only report the Bayesian results.
Pairwise genetic distances
We calculated uncorrected p-distances (i.e. the proportion of
nucleotide sites at which two sequences differ, with no cor-
rection for multiple substitutions at the same site) within and
among resolved clades for the COII dataset and for the con-
catenated nuclear dataset using MEGA version 5.1 (Tamura
et al. 2011) with pairwise deletion of gaps and missing data.
Wolbachia screening
We screened a subset of the LC individuals for Wolbachia
infection by amplifying a Wolbachia-specific 16S gene
from genomic DNA isolated from Speyeria tissue
(‘Appendix 1’’). As a positive control for PCR amplifica-
tion, we used a genomic DNA template from a spider
previously determined by GJB to be infected with Wol-
bachia. This template yielded a positive band in every PCR
reaction we attempted with Speyeria gDNA. Positive bands
were subjected to the same protocols for molecular data
acquisition, sequence assembly and alignment as other LC
samples (‘Appendix 2’). Sequences were identified using
homology searching with BLASTn.
Results
Data characteristics and model choice
Of the 121 Speyeria sampled at Lewis & Clark, we
obtained quality sequences from 90 individuals; the taxa
included, collection locations, and other information are
summarized in ‘Appendix 1’. With the addition of RVB
sequence data (see ‘Methods section and Table 1), our
dataset included data from nine of the 16 recognized spe-
cies of Speyeria in the western U.S. and from 25 of the 104
described subspecies of these nine species, including eight
Table 2 Data set characteristics and model parameters as estimated from Bayesian Information Criterion implemented in jModelTest 0.1.1
Gene Model A C G T ti/tv AC AG AT CG CT GT G I # char all # char
inf
COII HKY?I?G 0.35 0.15 0.11 0.38 11.98 1.10 0.70 554 53
wingless TrNef?I 0.26 0.23 0.27 0.23 1.0 1.42 1.0 1.0 10.9 1.0 0.81 403 10
GADPH TPM2?I?G 6.3 25.5 6.3 1.0 25.5 1.0 0.69 0.80 692 28
TPI F81?G 0.34 0.11 0.21 0.33 0.16 362 12
RpS5 K80?I 3.25 0.76 613 20
Total nuclear 2,070 70
Total 2,624 123
Numbers of characters are reported for both parsimony-informative (‘‘inf’’) and total characters (‘‘all’’) in the aligned dataset
J Insect Conserv
123
of the 15–16 described subspecies of S. zerene (Pelham
2008; Dunford 2009; Table 1). In addition to S. zerene, five
other species in our analysis (S. atlantis,S. callippe,S.
egleis,S. hydaspe, and S. mormonia) were represented by
more than one subspecies (Table 1).
DNA from different taxa and different markers ampli-
fied with varying success; our final datasets were most
complete for COII and wingless (‘‘Appendix 1’). We had
particular difficulty amplifying genes from museum spec-
imens (Watts et al. 2007), which constituted most of our
samples of S. z. hippolyta; as a result, these museum
specimens are represented only in the wingless and COII
datasets. The numbers of bases in final alignments, and
model characteristics, are summarized in Table 2. Models
selected by jModelTest for all individual gene partitions
indicate that two-rate parameters provided the best models
of substitution patterns for both nuclear and mitochondrial
datasets. Of the 2,624 nucleotides in our full-concatenated
dataset, the mitochondrial gene constituted 21 % of the
dataset, and 43 % of the parsimony-informative sites
(Table 2).
Phylogenetic analyses
The degree to which relationships were resolved varied
among markers, with mitochondrial COII resolving a
higher proportion of nodes than any analyses of the nuclear
sequences. More nodes were resolved in the concatenated
nuclear gene analysis than in individual analyses of nuclear
genes; however, analyses of nuclear data resolved fewer
nodes, even when concatenated, than did analyses of
mitochondrial data (Fig. 2).
Support of monophyly of nominal species
Speyeria cybele was the only nominal species that was
monophyletic in all of our analyses (Figs. 2,3,4). S. hy-
daspe and S. mormonia were supported as monophyletic by
the full concatenated analysis, which contained the most
complete dataset (Fig. 4), as well as by either the COII (in
the case of S. hydaspe) or the nuclear (for S. mormonia)
analyses, but not by all of the analyses. Many species were
present in unresolved polytomies that included other taxa,
or were resolved into clades that were not monophyletic.
Some species were more solidly supported than others as
not monophyletic; most notable were S. atlantis and S.
zerene, each consistently supported as polyphyletic, or
included in multiple clades that were not resolved by our
analyses.
S. zerene is not supported as monophyletic
None of our analyses supported the monophyly of the focal
species, S. zerene. In the COII analyses, S. zerene was
strongly supported as polyphyletic, with two clades (M1
and M2) that were themselves paraphyletic (Fig. 2, left). In
clade M1 the paraphyly was caused by the inclusion of a
single haplotype of S. callippe. Clade M1 was contained in
another clade that also included S. hollandi,S. atlantis
sorocko,S. atlantis dodgei, other S. callippe individuals,
and S. egleis (Fig. 2, left). Another S. zerene (spp. hip-
polyta from Westport, WA) resolved with S. callippe. Most
of our S. zerene specimens were resolved in clade M2,
which contained two clades that we refer to as M3 and M4
(Fig. 2, left). In clade M3, a subset of S. zerene would be
monophyletic except for the inclusion of five individuals of
S. coronis snyderi. Clade M4 consisted primarily of
S. zerene but also included S. atlantis subspecies and S.
egleis.
The concatenated nuclear analysis (Fig. 2, right) had a
large polytomy that did not resolve all S. zerene taxa.
However, it did resolve two clades that were predominantly
S. zerene. One of these, N1, while weakly supported
(posterior probability =0.52), contained individuals of all
S. zerene subspecies in our dataset except S. z. hippolyta.
(S. z. bremnerii is not included because this taxon was
represented by only a single nuclear gene.) Clade N1 also
included one S. callippe (of three in the dataset) and two S.
atlantis hesperis individuals. The second clade, N2,
included all five S. z. hippolyta for which we amplified
more than one nuclear marker. However, this clade of
S. z. hippolyta was paraphyletic; it included a monophyletic
clade of seven S. cybele. Nine of the S. zerene in this
dataset were in neither clade N1 nor N2, but were in an
unresolved polytomy that contained clades N1 and N2
(Fig. 2, right).
In the full concatenated analysis (Fig. 4), relationships
among S. zerene individuals reflected the influence of
signals from both the nuclear and mitochondrial data
(Fig. 2). There was one strongly supported monophyletic
clade of S. zerene, A1 (Fig. 4), that included all taxa
resolved in clade M1 of the COII analysis (Fig. 2, left). A
second strongly supported clade, A2 (Fig. 4), included all
S. zerene taxa in clade M3 (Fig. 2, left), including a S.
coronis snyderi individual that rendered S. zerene para-
phyletic. A third clade, A3 (Fig. 4), contained taxa that
corresponded to clade M4 (Fig. 2, left) and was paraphy-
letic, including the two S. atlantis hesperis individuals in
the analysis.
J Insect Conserv
123
Fig. 2 Mirrored COII (left) and nuclear concatenated (right) 50 % majority rule consensus phylogenies from Bayesian analyses. Branch width is proportional to posterior probabilities of clades,
with the widest branches equivalent to probabilities[.95. Scale bar on tree represents numbers of nucleotide substitutions per site. S. zerene in blue;S. z. hippolyta in red. Photos display ventral
morphology on the left and dorsal morphology on the right. They are scaled for relative size; scale bars in photos represent 1 cm. (Color figure online)
J Insect Conserv
123
Mitochondrial and nuclear data differ in support
of monophyly of S. zerene hippolyta
There was a striking disparity between the mitochondrial
and nuclear analyses in their degree of support for the
monophyly of S. z. hippolyta (Fig. 2). In the COII analysis,
S. z. hippolyta was strongly supported as polyphyletic, with
some individuals falling into clade M1 (those from popu-
lations at Rock Creek, Bray Point, Lake Earl, and Boiler
Bay), and others falling into clade M3 (from populations at
Cascade Head, Mt. Hebo, Cape Meares, and other indi-
viduals from the Boiler Bay and Lake Earl populations). In
neither clade M1 nor M3 did S. z. hippolyta resolve as
monophyletic. Moreover, a single individual from West-
port, WA, fell outside of both clades. The average p-dis-
tances between this individual’s sequence and those of S. z.
hippolyta in clades M1 and M3 were 2.8 and 1.6 %,
respectively. In the COII analysis, this individual paired
with S. callippe; it was not represented in our nuclear
analysis.
In contrast, in the analysis of concatenated nuclear data
(Fig. 2, right), all S. z. hippolyta resolved into a single
clade (N2); this clade included S. cybele as well. We
analyzed the wingless dataset independently, because it
0.1
S. hollandi hollandi (Sil)
S. atlantis hesperis (Sil)
S. atlantis sorocko (Rio)
S. mormonia erinna (Och)
S. hollandi hollandi (Sil)
S. atlantis/hollandi (Sil)
S. atlantis hesperis (Sil)
S. mormonia erinna (Och)
S. mormonia erinna (Och)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene picta (Dea)
S. mormonia artonis (Ste)
S. atlantis dodgei (Sis)
S. atlantis dodgei (Och)
S. atlantis dodgei (Sis)
S. mormonia artonis (Ste)
S. atlantis sorocko (Rio)
S. atlantis cornelia (Rio)
S. zerene hippolyta (Cas)
S. zerene hippolyta (Nor)
S. zerene hippolyta (Roc)
S. zerene hippolyta (Roc)
S. zerene hippolyta (Sad)
S. zerene hippolyta (Rey)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. zerene hippolyta (Roc)
S. zerene hippolyta (MtH)
S. zerene hippolyta (MtH)
S. zerene hippolyta (Boi)
S. zerene hippolyta (LoB)
S. zerene hippolyta (Roc)
S. zerene bremnerii (BeC)
S. zerene bremnerii (Oly)
S. zerene bremnerii (Thu)
S. zerene picta (Och)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene conchyliatus (Dog)
S. coronis snyderi (Ben)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene gunderi (Ste)
S. coronis snyderi (Dea)
S. coronis snyderi (Dea)
S. coronis snyderi (Ben) S. zerene picta (Dea) S. zerene gloriosa (Sis)
S. zerene gloriosa (Sis)
S. callippe elaine (Sis)
S. hydaspe hydaspe (Sis)
S. callippe elaine (Sis)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. callippe elaine (Sis)
S. zerene sinope (Gor)
S. zerene sinope (Lar)
S. zerene gunderi (Ste)
S. zerene picta (Och)
S. zerene platina (Uin)
S. zerene platina (Uin)
S. zerene sinope (Lar)
S. zerene gloriosa (Sis)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene conchyliatus (Dog)
S. zerene sinope (Lar)
S. zerene gunderi (Ste)
S. zerene gunderi (Dog)
S. zerene picta (Dea)
S. zerene conchyliatus (Dog)
S. zerene gunderi (Dog)
S. zerene gunderi (Dog)
S. zerene picta (Och)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. hydaspe hydaspe (Sis)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. hydaspe hydaspe (Sis)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. mormonia artonis (Ste)
Ar
gy
nnis a
g
la
j
a (Val)
S. atlantis sorocko (Rio)
S. atlantis cornelia (Rio)
Fig. 3 50 % majority rule consensus phylogeny from Bayesian
analysis of the wingless dataset. Branch width is proportional to
posterior probabilities of clades, with the widest branches equivalent
to probabilities [.95. Scale bar represents numbers of nucleotide
substitutions per site. S. zerene in blue;S. z. hippolyta in red. (Color
figure online)
J Insect Conserv
123
included the full set of taxa, including many museum
specimens of S. z. hippolyta. This analysis (Fig. 3) resolved
all the S. z. hippolyta into a single clade that also contained
S. cybele, as well as S. z. bremnerii.
Mean pairwise genetic distances for nuclear and
mitochondrial sequences among the S. z. hippolyta
clades M1 and M3 and S. cybele were consistent with
the phylogenetic relationships just described. Mito-
chondrial p-distances (Table 3a, c) suggest that clades
M1andM3ofS. z. hippolyta differ from one another
just as much as each does from S. cybele. However,
nuclear p-distances between clades M1 and M3 are half
as great as the distances between each clade and S.
cybele (Table 3b, c).
S. coronis snyderi (Dea)
S. coronis snyderi (Dea)
S. coronis snyderi (Ben)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. hydaspe hydaspe (Sis)
S. hydaspe hydaspe (Sis)
S. hydaspe hydaspe (Sis)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. hydaspe sakuntala (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. cybele leto (Och)
S. mormonia artonis (Ste)
S. mormonia artonis (Ste)
S. mormonia artonis (Ste)
S. mormonia erinna (Och)
S. mormonia erinna (Och)
S. mormonia erinna (Och)
S. coronis snyderi (Ben)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene picta (Och)
S. zerene picta (Och)
S. zerene picta (Och)
S. zerene picta (Uin)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene gloriosa (Sis)
S. zerene gloriosa (Sis)
S. zerene gloriosa (Sis)
S. zerene picta (Dea)
S. zerene sinope (Lar)
S. zerene sinope (Lar)
S. zerene hippolyta (Cas)
S. zerene hippolyta (MtH)
S. zerene hippolyta (MtH)
S. atlantis hesperis (Sil)
S. atlantis hesperis (Sil)
S. atlantis sorocko (Rio)
S. atlantis sorocko (Rio)
S. atlantis sorocko (Rio)
S. atlantis cornelia (Rio)
S. atlantis cornelia (Rio)
S. atlantis cornelia (Rio)
S. zerene picta (Dea)
S. zerene picta (Dea)
S. zerene gunderi (Dog)
S. zerene gunderi (Dog)
S. zerene gunderi (Dog)
S. zerene gunderi (Ste)
S. zerene gunderi (Ste)
S. zerene gunderi (Ste)
S. zerene hippolyta (Roc)
S. zerene hippolyta (Roc)
S. zerene sinope (Gor)
S. zerene sinope (Lar)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. callippe elaine (Sis)
S. callippe elaine (Sis)
S. atlantis dodgei (Och)
S. atlantis dodgei (Sis)
S. atlantis dodgei (Sis)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
S. zerene conchyliatus (Dog)
S. zerene conchyliatus (Dog)
S. zerene conchyliatus (Dog)
S. hollandi hollandi (Sil)
S. hollandi hollandi (Sil)
S. callippe elaine (Sis)
S. egleis egleis (Sis)
0.3
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene platina (Ban)
S. zerene platina (Uin)
Brenthis daphne (PdN)
Argynnis aglaja (Val)
S. atlantis/hollandi (Sil)
A1
A3
A2
Fig. 4 50 % majority rule consensus phylogeny from Bayesian
analysis for the full concatenated dataset. Branch width is propor-
tional to posterior probabilities of clades, with the widest branches
equivalent to probabilities [.95. Scale bar represents numbers of
nucleotide substitutions per site. S. zerene in blue;S. z. hippolyta in
red. (Color figure online)
J Insect Conserv
123
Monophyly of other Speyeria subspecies
Few subspecies of any other Speyeria species were sup-
ported as monophyletic. However, few of these taxa were
sufficiently well-sampled to allow a meaningful test
(Table 1). Interestingly, despite a lack of broad sampling,
all S. zerene subspecies except S. z. conchyliatus are
polyphyletic in the COII analysis with individuals in clades
M1, M3, and/or M4. S. z. conchyliatus is paraphyletic with
respect to the inclusion of S. z. gunderi in a monophyletic
polytomy (Fig. 2, left). The conchyliatus ?gunderi group
was unresolved by the nuclear data analysis.
Subspecies of some other Speyeria species were con-
sistently paired into clades that may provide insight into
their taxonomic affinities. For example, S. atlantis sorocko
was never resolved with other S. atlantis, but they were
supported as a sister taxon to S.hollandi in the mito-
chondrial, the nuclear and the full concatenated analyses
(Figs. 2,4).
Evidence of Wolbachia in the Speyeria lineage
Of 66 individuals screened for the Wolbachia 16S gene, we
amplified two positive PCR products, one each from S. z.
gunderi and S. z. picta (‘Appendix 1’). Both were sub-
mitted for sequencing, and one provided clean sequence
(contact authors for accession number). The top 100 best
matches from NCBI BLAST searches of this sequence had
98–99 % identity (e-values =0) with a strain of Wolba-
chia pipientis. All of the matches that were annotated were
isolated from insect hosts.
Discussion
Western North American species of Speyeria are notable
for their complex and often subtle morphological varia-
tion and for the difficulty they present for making accu-
rate determinations of species and subspecies (Pyle 2002;
Dunford 2009). Our analysis of patterns of mitochondrial
and nuclear DNA variation does not provide a tidy res-
olution of this complexity. Patterns suggested by an
analysis of the mitochondrial COII gene were rarely
confirmed by an examination of nuclear genes. Nuclear
genes that have proven to be useful markers in other
Lepidoptera provided little phylogenetically informative
variation, leaving relationships among many taxa unre-
solved. Different genes showed considerable variation in
their ease of amplification, causing different analyses to
contain different subsets of individuals. DNA from
museum specimens proved difficult to extract or amplify,
reducing the taxon sample for our target group, S. z.
hippolyta. Nevertheless, we are able to draw some useful
insights about S. z. hippolyta and the larger group to
which it belongs.
Aside from S. cybele (clearly supported as monophyletic
by our COII analysis), our analyses provide little support
for the nominal species currently recognized for Speyeria,
and even less support for the many subspecies designa-
tions. In many cases, the lack of pattern we have found
should be regarded as quite tentative, because some taxa
are represented by only a few individuals. However, even
the species for which we have the largest sample, S. zerene,
fails to emerge as a distinct group in any of our analyses.
Interestingly, both the nuclear and mtDNA analyses sug-
gest the possible existence of a previously unrecognized
monophyletic group composed of S. atlantis sorocko and S.
hollandi hollandi, including a putative hybrid between the
two. But as a general rule, there is little molecular support
for most of the nominal taxa in our sample.
These genetic findings stand in contrast to the subtle but
distinctive morphological differences recognized by
Speyeria experts and used to make consistent species and
subspecies identifications. This contrast suggests that the
evolutionary history of Speyeria in North America may be
quite recent, allowing little opportunity for fixed molecular
markers to diverge within lineages. Barriers to inter-
breeding in this group may be the consequence of mor-
phological, behavioral or ecological traits that are expected
Table 3 Uncorrected mean p-distances within (shaded) and among
(unshaded) groups of individuals that resolved in clades M1 and M3
of S. zerene hippolyta (a) for COII and (b) for the concatenated
nuclear dataset. (c) Mean p-distances within cybele (shaded) and
between cybele and hippolyta clades (unshaded) for COII and the
concatenated nuclear dataset
a
COII Clade M1 Clade M3
Clade M1 0.21
Clade M3 3.31 0.12
b
Nuc all Clade M1 Clade M3
Clade M1 0.44
Clade M3 0.42 0.30
c
cybele COII cybele
nuclear
Clade M1 4.00 0.89
Clade M3 2.91 0.73
cybele 0.36 0.05
J Insect Conserv
123
to evolve more rapidly than neutral traits because they are
driven by selection. In such cases we would expect neutral
genetic variation to display a pattern consistent with
incomplete lineage sorting, as observed here (Forister et al.
2008).
The existence of mtDNA patterns that are discordant
with patterns of nuclear DNA raises questions about the
origins of these discordances and their implications (Toews
and Brelsford 2012). At least four mechanisms could
contribute to discordances. First, as discussed above, they
could be the result of incomplete lineage sorting. Secondly,
they could be caused by introgression of mtDNA haplo-
types into populations through hybridization. Because
females are the heterogametic sex in Lepidoptera, it is
expected, according to Haldane’s Rule, that females that
result from interspecific hybridization will experience
reduced viability relative to males. For this reason it is
thought that Lepidoptera will be less prone to the intro-
gression of maternally inherited genetic material when
hybridization occurs (Sperling 2003). However, clear cases
of mitochondrial introgression have been reported among
Lepidoptera (Forister et al. 2008; Gompert et al. 2008;
Zakharov et al. 2009). Given that some Speyeria localities
have as many as eight sympatric species (Hammond 1974),
and that some species, such as S. zerene, are considered
relatively vagile (Hammond 1974), hybridization is a
potentially important process in this group. Hammond and
McCorkle (personal communication, Feb. 25, 2012) report
that approximately 1/1,000 Speyeria individuals observed
in the field appear to be hybrids on morphological grounds.
Models of hybridization (Chan and Levin 2005) have
shown that even occasional long-distance dispersal by a
single migrant can lead to introgression. S. z. gloriosa is
thought to be capable of migrating 80–160 km during its
flight season (Hammond and McCorkle personal commu-
nication, Feb. 25, 2012).
A third possible source of discordance between mtDNA
and nuclear variation patterns is Wolbachia infection. This
bacterial symbiont is increasingly being recognized as
posing a particular challenge to genetic studies of Lepi-
doptera and other arthropods (Nice et al. 2009). By con-
ferring cytoplasmic incompatibility (Werren et al. 2008),
Wolbachia infection can drive maternally inherited traits in
the mitochondrial genome to spread through populations,
causing patterns of mtDNA variation to depart from
expectations (Hurst and Jiggins 2005; Galtier et al. 2009).
Our data indicate that Wolbachia infection is present in at
least some populations of S. zerene.
Heteroplasmy, the possession of multiple mitochondrial
haplotypes by a single individual, represents a fourth
potential source of mtDNA and nuclear DNA discordance.
If PCR selectively amplifies only one of the possible
haplotypes present in an individual, mtDNA will be a poor
reflection of the true species tree. Nearly half of the bee
species surveyed by Magnacca and Brown (2010) exhibited
some degree of heteroplasmy for the COI barcoding gene.
Additional data, perhaps obtained through pyrosequencing
(White et al. 2005), are necessary to distinguish among
these possible sources of discordance between mtDNA and
nuclear DNA patterns.
As is true for the Karner blue butterfly (Gompert et al.
2006), our analysis suggests that COII does not accurately
represent species and subspecies-level genetic relationships
within Speyeria. Insofar as COII is closely linked to the
classic barcode region of COI, Speyeria joins a growing list
of taxa for which COI may not be a particularly useful
‘barcode’’ marker (Wahlberg et al. 2003a; Roe and Sper-
ling 2007; Forister et al. 2008).
Our primary motivation for this study was to obtain
clearer information about the phylogenetic status of the
threatened Speyeria zerene hippolyta, in order to assess the
appropriateness of its current classification as an ESU. Our
results for this group were particularly perplexing. Bayesian
analysis of the wingless gene resolves all of the S. z. hippo lyta
individuals and their morphologically-similar geographical
neighbor S. z. bremnerii into a single clade with posterior
probability =1.0. The concatenated nuclear data, whose
phylogenetic pattern reflects that of wingless, also resolves
the five S. z. hippolyta included in this analysis into a single
weakly-supported clade, N2 (posterior probability =0.55).
However, interpretation of the N2 clade is complicated by
the fact that it also includes seven individuals of S. cybele.
While S. z. hippolyta is a small-winged, sexually-mono-
morphic butterfly, S. cybele is one of the largest Speyeria
species and is sexually dimorphic in the western U.S.A.
(Hammond 1978). It is likely that S. cybele’s inclusion with
S. z. hippolyta in the N2 clade was driven by their shared
pattern for a single marker, wingless, which could be the
result of convergence in this relatively invariant gene. No
analyses of other individual genes, nuclear or mitochondrial,
supported a S. cybeleS. z. hippolyta clade.
Results for the COII tree are quite different. Here,
individuals of S. z. hippolyta are represented in two distinct
clades whose average sequences differ by more than 3 %,
more than each differs from some other nominal species.
Furthermore, neither clade consists solely of S. z. hippol-
yta; each also includes five other subspecies of S. zerene
and two other nominal Speyeria species. In addition, mean
p-distances of the concatenated nuclear genes are similar
within and among S. z. hippolyta individuals that are
resolved in the mitochondrial clades M1 and M3 (Table 2).
That these p-distances are relatively high is apparent from
the long branches of the nuclear concatenated tree (Fig. 2,
right). Combined, these data suggest that there is some
genetic variability within and among S. z. hippolyta
populations.
J Insect Conserv
123
However, the pattern created by these data is not strong
enough to override other evidence supporting S. z. hip-
polyta’s status as a distinct ESU. This group displays
specific morphological, developmental, and ecological
traits that McCorkle and Hammond (1988) described as
adaptations to the salt-spray meadows and windswept
headlands that characterize its coastal habitat. Unfortu-
nately, we were unable to draw any inferences about the
two other sensitive subspecies of S. zerene,S. z. behrensii
and S. z. myrtleae. Our samples of these taxa were com-
prised only of museum specimens, and we were unable to
amplify genes from any of them.
Though our results do not call into question’s S. z.
hippolyta’s status as an ESU, they do have significant
implications for current management practices for this
group. Currently, individuals from the large, stable popu-
lation at Mt. Hebo are being captively reared and released
at Cascade Head and Rock Creek/Bray Point to augment
the much smaller, declining populations there. Our study
detected differences between the mitochondrial DNA
haplotypes of the Mt. Hebo and Rock Creek populations,
differences that in the future could either be erased by these
augmentations or that might render the augmentations
ineffective, if the genetic differences are great enough to
provide barriers to interbreeding. Work in RVB’s labora-
tory is currently underway to determine what proportion of
the Rock Creek population retains its distinctive mtDNA
haplotype as opposed to having acquired the haplotype of
the captively-reared individuals used for augmentation.
Our provocative finding that some populations of S.
zerene are infected with Wolbachia raises additional con-
cerns about population augmentations. While none of our
S. z. hippolyta samples scored positively for Wolbachia,it
is possible that we failed to detect Wolbachia in some
infected individuals. Introducing Wolbachia-infected indi-
viduals into an uninfected population temporarily reduces
its effective population size (until the infection is fixed or
extinct), and thus could cause augmentation to have the
opposite of its intended effect (Nice et al. 2009). Our
screen was only preliminary and did not provide a com-
prehensive survey of Wolbachia infection. A more com-
prehensive screening of both extant and extinct populations
of S. z. hippolyta is currently underway (Amy Truitt per-
sonal communication, Aug. 15 2011).
In conclusion, the recent ancestry that seems to char-
acterize this group of butterflies creates challenges for
delineation of ESUs. For several taxa in this group,
knowledge of ESU boundaries has important implications
for management actions. It is possible that ESU determi-
nation in Speyeria might be aided by the application of an
integrative taxonomic approach (Crandall et al. 2000;
Dayrat 2005; Roe and Sperling 2007; Padial and De la Riva
2010; Schlick-Steiner et al. 2010), combining molecular
data with information about the morphological, ecological,
and geographic variation of these taxa. However, in a
group as evolutionarily dynamic as Speyeria appears to be,
even the combination of these approaches is unlikely to
produce a phylogeny characterized by reciprocally mono-
phyletic taxa, particularly at the subspecies level (Roe and
Sperling 2007). In such a situation, it may be best to err on
the side of caution when making conservation decisions for
the Oregon silverspot.
Acknowledgments We benefited from Paul Hammond’s and David
McCorkle’s many years of studying Speyeria in the field and labo-
ratory, and the generosity with which they have shared their time,
samples, knowledge, and insights. Other individuals and institutions
providing materials or other assistance include Andrew Warren and
the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity; Chris Marshall,
Dana Ross and the Oregon State University Arthropod Collection;
Niklas Wahlberg; Gary Albright and the Tillamook County Pioneer
Museum; Mike Patterson; Anne Warner of United States Fish and
Wildlife Service; Debbie Pickering of The Nature Conservancy; and
Mary Jo Anderson and David Shepherdson at the Oregon Zoo. We are
grateful for the field assistance of Charlie Blackmar, Megan Siefert,
Ryan Essman, Amanda Delzer, Steven Levitte, Becca Salesky, Terry
Stratton, Marrissa Hirt, and Beka Feathers, and for the advice and
assistance of Pamela Zobel-Thropp, Elise Maxwell and Wendy
McLennan. Work at Lewis & Clark College was generously sup-
ported by Oregon Zoo’s Future for Wildlife Program, James Dunford,
and Lewis & Clark College. Data collection and initial analysis by
RVB was supported by the Center for Population Biology, University
of California, Davis.
Appendix 1
See Table 4.
Table 4 Nominal taxa whose DNA was isolated at LC, their provenance, accession numbers, and genes successfully amplified
Taxon Collection Location
(abbreviation used
in trees)
COII CAD GAPDH RpS5 TPI Wingless Wolbachia
testing
(4
denotes
positive result
Full Taxon
identifier
Argynnis aglaja Vallentuna, Stockholmsla
¨n (Val) •• NW76-15
Brenthis daphne Pic de Nore (PdN) •• NW907080101
S. atlantis cornelia Rio Blanco Co., CO (Rio) ••PHC-1
J Insect Conserv
123
Table 4 continued
Taxon Collection Location
(abbreviation used
in trees)
COII CAD GAPDH RpS5 TPI Wingless Wolbachia
testing
(4
denotes
positive result
Full Taxon
identifier
S. atlantis cornelia Rio Blanco Co., CO (Rio) ••PHC-2
S. atlantis cornelia Rio Blanco Co., CO (Rio) ••PHC-3
S. atlantis dodgei Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180404
S. atlantis dodgei Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) •• • • • LC908010205
S. atlantis dodgei Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010505
S. atlantis hesperis Silver Lake, MT (Sil) ••• • LC908010101
S. atlantis hesperis Silver Lake, MT (Sil) ••• • LC908010102
S. atlantis sorocko Rio Blanco Co., CO (Rio) ••PHS-1
S. atlantis sorocko Rio Blanco Co., CO (Rio) ••PHS-2
S. atlantis sorocko Rio Blanco Co., CO (Rio) ••PHS-3
S. atlantis/hollandi Silver Lake, MT (Sil) ••LC908010103
S. callippe elaine Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••• • • LC908010204
S. callippe elaine Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010221
S. callippe elaine Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010226
S. coronis snyderi Bennett Hills, ID (Ben) ••LC907110101
S. coronis snyderi Bennett Hills, ID (Ben) ••LC907110102
S. coronis snyderi Dearborn River, MT (Dea) ••• • LC907310102
S. coronis snyderi Dearborn River, MT (Dea) ••LC907310104
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180201
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180203
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180204
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180205
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180207
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••• • • LC907180208
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) •• • LC907180209
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) LC907180217
S. cybele leto Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) LC907180219
S. egleis egleis Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010206
S. egleis egleis Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) •• • • LC908010217
S. egleis egleis Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010404
S. egleis egleis Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010515
S. hollandi hollandi Silver Lake, MT (Sil) ••LC908010105
S. hollandi hollandi Silver Lake, MT (Sil) ••• • LC908010106
S. hydaspe hydaspe Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010223
S. hydaspe hydaspe Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010407
S. hydaspe hydaspe Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010513
S. hydaspe sakuntala Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180101
S. hydaspe sakuntala Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••• • • LC907180401
S. hydaspe sakuntala Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC907180402
S. hydaspe sakuntala Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) •• • LC907180403
S. mormonia artonis Steens Mountain, OR (Ste) ••LC908080101
S. mormonia artonis Steens Mountain, OR (Ste) ••LC908080306
S. mormonia artonis Steens Mountain, OR (Ste) ••LC908080401
S. mormonia erinna Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••• • • LC907180206
S. mormonia erinna Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC908090232
J Insect Conserv
123
Table 4 continued
Taxon Collection Location
(abbreviation used
in trees)
COII CAD GAPDH RpS5 TPI Wingless Wolbachia
testing
(4
denotes
positive result
Full Taxon
identifier
S. mormonia erinna Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC908090503
S. zerene bremnerii Benton County, OR (BeC) •• OSU121594
S. zerene bremnerii Thurston County, WA (Thu) •• OSU121600
S. zerene bremnerii Olympic Mountains, WA (Oly) •• OSU121615
S. zerene conchyliatus Dog Lake, OR (Dog) ••LC908030102
S. zerene conchyliatus Dog Lake, OR (Dog) ••LC908030105
S. zerene conchyliatus Dog Lake, OR (Dog) ••• • LC908030106
S. zerene gloriosa Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010111
S. zerene gloriosa Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••LC908010401
S. zerene gloriosa Siskiyou Mountains, OR (Sis) ••• • LC908010514
S. zerene gunderi Dog Lake, OR (Dog) ••• • • LC908030101
S. zerene gunderi Dog Lake, OR (Dog) ••LC908030103
S. zerene gunderi Dog Lake, OR (Dog) ••• • • 4LC908030104
S. zerene gunderi Steens Mountain, OR (Ste) ••LC908080104
S. zerene gunderi Steens Mountain, OR (Ste) ••• • • LC908080207
S. zerene gunderi Steens Mountain, OR (Ste) ••• • LC908080209
S. zerene hippolyta Cascade Head, OR (Cas) •• • • • LC208270101
S. zerene hippolyta Rock Creek, OR (Roc) ••• • • LC208280101
S. zerene hippolyta Rock Creek, OR (Roc) ••• • • LC208280102
S. zerene hippolyta Mt. Hebo, OR (MtH) ••LC309180101
S. zerene hippolyta Mt. Hebo, OR (MtH) •• • • LC509020102
S. zerene hippolyta Long Beach, WA (LoB) •• OSU140631
S. zerene hippolyta Del Rey Beach, OR (Rey) •• OSU140632
S. zerene hippolyta Saddle Mt., OR (Sad) •• OSU140636
S. zerene hippolyta Boiler Bay, OR (Boi) •• OSU140639
S. zerene hippolyta Rock Creek, OR (Roc) •• OSU140641
S. zerene hippolyta Rock Creek, OR (Roc) •• OSU140642
S. zerene hippolyta Del Norte, CA (Nor) •• OSU140643
S. zerene picta Dearborn River, MT (Dea) ••• • • 4LC907310101
S. zerene picta Dearborn River, MT (Dea) ••LC907310105
S. zerene picta Dearborn River, MT (Dea) ••LC907310109
S. zerene picta Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC908090505
S. zerene picta Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••LC908090513
S. zerene picta Ochoco Mountains, OR (Och) ••• • LC908090603
S. zerene platina Uinta Mountains, OR (Uin) ••• • • LC907130101
S. zerene platina Uinta Mountains, OR (Uin) ••• • • LC907130102
S. zerene platina East Bannock Pass, MT (Ban) ••• • LC907310102
S. zerene platina East Bannock Pass, MT (Ban) ••LC907310106
S. zerene platina East Bannock Pass, MT (Ban) ••LC908020101
S. zerene platina East Bannock Pass, MT (Ban) ••LC908020105
S. zerene sinope Gore Pass, CO (Gor) ••LC907170101
S. zerene sinope Laramie Mountains, WY (Lar) •• • • • LC907200101
S. zerene sinope Laramie Mountains, WY (Lar) ••LC907200102
S. zerene sinope Laramie Mountains, WY (Lar) ••LC907200103
Identifications by Paul Hammond and David McCorkle. Sequences provided by RVB not included
J Insect Conserv
123
Appendix 2
See Table 5.
References
Beltra
´n M, Jiggins CD, Bull V, Linares M, Mallet J, McMillan
WO, Bermingham E (2002) Phylogenetic discordance at the
species boundary: comparative gene genealogies among rap-
idly radiating Heliconius butterflies. Mol Biol Evol 19(12):
2176–2190
Brittnacher JG, Sims SR, Ayala FJ (1978) Genetic differentiation
between species of the genus Speyeria (Lepidoptera: Nymphal-
idae). Evol 32:199–210
Brower AVZ (1994) Rapid morphological radiation and convergence
among races of the butterfly Heliconius erato inferred from
patterns of mitochondrial DNA evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci
91:6491–6495
Brower AVZ, DeSalle R (1998) Patterns of mitochondrial versus
nuclear DNA sequence divergence among nymphalid butterflies:
the utility of wingless as a source of characters for phylogenetic
inference. Insect Mol Biol 7:73–82
Chan KMA, Levin SA (2005) Leaky prezygotic isolation and porous
genomes: rapid introgression of maternally inherited DNA. Evol
59:720–729
Crandall KA, Bininda-Emonds ORP, Mace GM, Wayne RK (2000)
Considering evolutionary processes in conservation biology.
Trends Ecol Evol 15(7):290–295
Table 5 a Primers and annealing temperatures for PCR reactions used in this analysis. b Sequences of primers used, listed from 50–30
a
Gene Primer 1 Primer 2 Annealing temp. (C) Fragmentent length (bp)
COI/COII C1-J-2183, TL2-N-3014* TK-N-3772, C1-J2983* 43–47 1,410
COII C2-J-3291 C2-N-3772 44–48 456
COII Pierre (3183) Hillary (3785) 44–48 611
CAD CAD743nF CAD1028R 54–57 850
GAPDH HybFrigga HybBurre 48 697
RpS5 rpS5degF rpS5degR 55 616
TPI Tpi-1 Tpi-2 53, 58 332
wingless Wg1aF Wg2aR 56 408
16S (Wolbachia) W-Specf W-Specr 60 438
b
Primer Sequence References
C2-J-3291 50-TAATTTGAACTATYTTACCIGC-30Brower (1994)
C2-N-3772 50–GAGACCATTACTTGCTTTCAGTCATCT-30Brower (1994)
Pierre (3183) 50-AGCGCCTCTCCTTTAATAGAACA-30N/A
Hillary (3785) 50-GTTTAAGAGACCAGTACTTG-30N/A
C1-J-2183 50-CAACATTTATTTTGATTTTTTGG-30Williams (2002)
TK-N-3772 50-GACCATTACTTGCTTTCAGTCATCT-30Williams (2002)
TL2-N-3014* 50-TCCATTACATATAATCAGCCATATTA-30Williams (2002)
C1-J2983* 50-TACCTCCTGCTGAACATTCT-30Williams (2002)
CAD743nF 50-TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGGGNGTNACNACNGCNTGYTTYGARCC-30Wahlberg and Wheat (2008)
CAD1028R 50-ATTAACCCTCACTAAAGTTRTTNGGNARYTGNCCNCCCAT-30Wahlberg and Wheat (2008)
HybFrigga 50-TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGAARGCTGGRGCTGAATATGT-30Wahlberg and Wheat (2008)
HybBurre 50-ATTAACCCTCACTAAAGGWTTGAATGTACTTGATRAGRTC-30Wahlberg and Wheat (2008)
rpS5degF 50-TAATACGACTCACTATAGGGATGGCNGARGARAAYTGGAAYGA-30Wahlberg and Wheat (2008)
rpS5degR 50-ATTAACCCTCACTAAGCGGTTRGAYTTRGCAACACG-30Wahlberg and Wheat (2008)
Tpi-1 50-GGTCACTCTGAAAGGAGAACCATCTT-30Beltra
´n et al. (2002)
Tpi-2 50-CACAACATTTGCCCAGTTGTTGCCAA-30Beltra
´n et al. (2002)
Wg1aF 50-GARTGYAARTGYCAYGGYATGTCTGG-30N/A
Wg2aR 50-ACTICGCARCACCARTGGAATGTRCA-30N/A
W-Specf 50-CATACCTATTCGAAGGGATAG-30Werren and Windsor (2000)
W-Specr 50-AGCTTCGAGTGAAACCAATTC-30Werren and Windsor (2000)
Primers labeled * were used for internal sequencing
J Insect Conserv
123
Crone EE, Pickering D, Schultz CB (2007) Can captive rearing
promote recovery of endangered butterflies? An assessment in
the face of uncertainty. Biol Conserv 139:103–112
Dayrat B (2005) Towards integrative taxonomy. Biol J Linnaean Soc
85:407–415
DeSalle R, Amato G (2004) The expansion of conservation genetics.
Nat Rev Genet 5:702–712
dosPassos CF, Grey LP (1947) Systematic catalogue of Speyeria
(Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) with designation of types and
fixations of type localities. Am Mus Novit 1370:1–30
Dunford JC (2007) The genus Speyeria and the Speyeria atlantis/
Speyeria hesperis complex: species and subspecies accounts,
systematics, and biogeography (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae).
Dissertation, University of Florida
Dunford JC (2009) Taxonomic overview of the greater fritillary genus
Speyeria Scudder and the atlantis-hesperis species complexes,
with species accounts, type images, and relevant literature.
Insecta Mundi 0090:1–74
Edgar RC (2004) MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high
accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic Acids Res 32(5):
1792–1797
Forister ML, Nice CC, Fordyce JA, Gompert Z, Shapiro AM (2008)
Considering evolutionary processes in the use of single-locus
genetic data for conservation, with examples from the Lepidop-
tera. J Insect Conserv 12:37–51
Galtier N, Nabholz B, Glemin S, Hurst GDD (2009) Mitochondrial
DNA as a marker of molecular diversity: a reappraisal. Mol Ecol
18:4541–4550
Gompert Z, Nice CC, Fordyce JA, Forister ML, Shapiro AM (2006)
Identifying units for conservation using molecular systematics:
the cautionary tale of the Karner blue butterfly. Mol Ecol
15:1759–1768
Gompert Z, Forister ML, Fordyce JA, Nice CC (2008) Widespread
mito-nuclear discordance with evidence for introgressive hybrid-
ization and selective sweeps in Lycaeides. Mol Ecol 17(24):
5231–5244
Hammond PC (1974) An ecological survey of the Nymphalid
butterfly genus Speyeria. Dissertation, University of Nebraska
Hammond PC (1978) Geographic variation and speciation in the
Nymphalid butterfly genus Speyeria. Dissertation, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University
Hammond PC (1981) The colonization of violets and Speyeria
butterflies on the ash-pumice fields deposited by Cascadian
volcanoes. J Res Lepidoptera 20(3):179–191
Hebert PDN, Cywinska A, Ball SL, deWard JR (2003) Biological
identifications through DNA barcodes. Proc R Soc Lond B
270:313–321
Hovanitz W (1943) Geographic variation and racial structure of
Argynnis callippe in California. Amer Nat 77:400–425
Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F (2001) MrBayes: Bayesian inference of
phylogenetic trees. Bioinformatics 17:754–755
Hurst GDD, Jiggins FM (2005) Problems with mitochondrial DNA as a
marker in population, phylogeographic, and phylogenetic studies:
the effects of inherited symbionts. Proc R Soc Lond B
272:1525–1534
Maddison WP, Maddison DR (2011) Mesquite: a modular system for
evolutionary analysis. Version 2.75 http://mesquiteproject.org.
Accessed April 13, 2011
Magnacca KN, Brown MJF (2010) Mitochondrial heteroplasmy and
DNA barcoding in Hawaiian Hylaeus (Nesoprosopis) bees
(Hymenoptera: Colletidae). BMC Evol Biol. doi:10.1186/1471-
2148-10-174
McCorkle DV, Hammond PC (1988) Biology of Speyeria zerene
hippolyta (Nymphalidae) in a marine-modified environment.
J Lepidopterist’s Soc 42:184–195
Moritz C (1994) Defining ‘evolutionarily significant units’ for
conservation. Trends Ecol Evol 9:373–375
Nice CC, Gompert Z, Forister ML, Fordyce JA (2009) An unseen foe in
arthropod conservation efforts: the case of Wolbachia infections in
the Karner blue butterfly. Biol Conserv 142:3137–3146
Padial JM, De la Riva I (2010) A response to recent proposals for
integrative taxonomy. Biol J Linnaean Soc 101:747–756
Pelham JP (2008) A catalogue of the Butterflies of the United States
and Canada with a complete bibliography of the descriptive and
systematic literature. J Res Lepidoptera 40:1–65
Pyle RM (2002) The butterflies of Cascadia. Seattle Audubon Society,
Seattle
Rambaut A, Drummond AJ (2007) Tracer v 1.4, available from http://
beast.bio.ed.ac.uk/Tracer
Regier JC, Grant MC, Mitter C, Cook CP, Peigler RS, Rougerie R
(2008) Phylogenetic relationships of wild silkmoths (Lepidoptera:
Saturniidae) inferred from four protein-coding nuclear genes. Syst
Entomol 33:219–228
Roe AD, Sperling FAH (2007) Population structure and species
boundary delimitation of cryptic Dioryctria moths: an integra-
tive approach. Mol Ecol 16:3617–3633
Ronquist F, Huelsenbeck JP (2003) MrBayes 3: Bayesian phylogenetic
inference under mixed models. Bioinformatics 19:1572–1574
Schlick-Steiner BC, Steiner FM, Seifert B, Stauffer C, Christian E,
Crozier RH (2010) Integrative taxonomy: a multisource approach
to exploring biodiversity. Ann Rev Entomol 55:421–438
Sperling FAH (2003) Butterfly molecular systematics: from species
definitions to higher-level phylogenies. In: Boggs CL, Watt WB,
Ehrlich PR (eds) Butterflies: ecology and evolution taking flight.
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 431–458
Tamura K, Peterson D, Peterson N, Stecher G, Nei M, Kumar S
(2011) MEGA5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using
maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum
parsimony methods. Mol Biol Evol 28:2731–2739
Toews DPL, Brelsford A (2012) The biogeography of mitochondrial and
nuclear discordance in animals. Mol Ecology 21(16):3907–3930
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2001) Oregon silverspot butterfly
(Speyeria zerene hippolyta) revised recovery plan. U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Portland
Van Buskirk RW Jr (2000) Phylogeography, monitoring and conser-
vation of Speyeria zerene hippolyta, the Oregon Silverspot
Butterfly, Dissertation. University of California, Davis
Wahlberg N, Wheat CW (2008) Genomic outposts serve the phylog-
enomic pioneers: designing novel nuclear markers for genomic
DNA extractions of Lepidoptera. Systematic Biol 57(2):231–242
Wahlberg N, Oliveira R, Scott JA (2003a) Phylogenetic relationships of
Phyciodes butterfly species (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): com-
plex mtDNA variation and species delimitations. Syst Entomol
28:257–273
Wahlberg N, Weingartner E, Nylin S (2003b) Towards a better
understanding of the higher systematics of Nymphalidae (Lepi-
doptera: Papilionidae). Mol Phylogenetics Evol 28:473–484
Wahlberg N, Weingartner E, Warren AD, Nylin S (2009) Timing
major conflict between mitochondrial and nuclear genes in
species relationships of Polygonia butterflies (Nymphalidae:
Nymphalini). BMC Evol Biol 9:92
Waples RS (1991) Pacific salmon, Onchorhynchus spp., and the
definition of ‘‘species’’ under the Endangered Species Act.
Marine Fisheries Rev 53(3):11–22
Watts PC, Thompson DJ, Allen KA, Kemp SJ (2007) How useful is
DNA extracted from the legs of archived insects for microsatellite-
based population genetic analyses? J. Insect Conserv 2:195–198
Werren JH, Windsor DM (2000) Wolbachia infection frequencies in
insects: evidence of a global equilibrium? Proc R Soc Lond B
267:1277–1285
J Insect Conserv
123
Werren JH, Baldo L, Clark ME (2008) Wolbachia: master manipu-
lators of invertebrate biology. Nat Rev Microbiol 6:741–751
White HE, Durston VJ, Sellar A, Fratter C, Harvey JF, Cross NCP
(2005) Accurate detection and quantitation of heteroplasmic
mitochondrial point mutations by pyrosequencing. Genetic Test-
ing 9(3):190–199
Williams BL (2002) Conservation genetics, extinction, and taxonomic
status: a case history of the regal fritillary. Conserv Biol
16(1):148–157
Xerces Society (2012) Red list of butterflies and moths. http://www.
xerces.org/red-list-of-butterflies-and-moths/. Accessed 9 Jan
2012
Zakharov EV, Lobo NF, Nowak C, Hellmann JJ (2009) Introgression
as a likely cause of mtDNA paraphyly in two allopatric skippers
(Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Heredity 102:590–599
J Insect Conserv
123
... It has therefore historically been difficult to delimit species of Speyeria and to characterize their phylogenetic relationships, leading to a comment that 'the literature is replete with erroneous determinations and many more are of doubtful validity' (dos Passos & Grey, 1947). Today, despite the integration of DNA sequence data, species relationships of Speyeria remain largely unresolved (Dunford, 2007;McHugh et al., 2013;de Moya et al., 2017), yet a stable phylogeny would support growing conservation concern for several species (Hammond, 1995;Breed et al., 2012;McHugh et al., 2013;Wells & Tonkin, 2014;Sims, 2017;Hill et al., 2018). ...
... It has therefore historically been difficult to delimit species of Speyeria and to characterize their phylogenetic relationships, leading to a comment that 'the literature is replete with erroneous determinations and many more are of doubtful validity' (dos Passos & Grey, 1947). Today, despite the integration of DNA sequence data, species relationships of Speyeria remain largely unresolved (Dunford, 2007;McHugh et al., 2013;de Moya et al., 2017), yet a stable phylogeny would support growing conservation concern for several species (Hammond, 1995;Breed et al., 2012;McHugh et al., 2013;Wells & Tonkin, 2014;Sims, 2017;Hill et al., 2018). ...
... Because of morphological ambiguity and apparently close relationships among many Speyeria, recent studies have used molecular characters to clarify relationships among species, typically using mitochondrial or a few nuclear genes (Dunford, 2007;McHugh et al., 2013;de Moya et al., 2017). Their results were often at odds with one another and showed high levels of paraphyly and polyphyly among morphologically recognized species (Fig. 1). ...
Article
The systematics of Speyeria butterflies has historically been complicated by intraspecific variability that has challenged efforts to delimit species and reconstruct phylogenies. Our study presents a phylogenetic comparison of genomic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mitochondrial COI gene sequences, with comprehensive taxon sampling that includes 15 species and 46 subspecies. Increased sampling of genetic markers and taxa improved the match between genetic clusters, obtained with both phylogenetic and cluster‐based analyses, and species previously detected using morphology, as well as showing two species delimitations that may need revision. We also recovered extensive mitonuclear discordance between genomic SNPs and the COI gene, confirming that mitochondrial DNA does not reliably identify several species at broad geographic scales. Resolution of the relationships of Speyeria species demonstrates the importance of sampling variation across the whole genome, and provides an essential foundation for understanding the evolution of this charismatic clade of North American butterflies. Phylogenetic comparison of nuclear SNPs and the mitochondrial COI gene reveals extensive mitonuclear discordance in Speyeria. Analysis of nuclear SNPs improves species‐level monophyly for most species, although at least two species delimitations should be reassessed. Hybridization with introgression is likely to be the strongest contributor to observed patterns of discordance.
... Upon arriving, they radiated onto the existing Viola diversity and ceased gene flow with Asian ancestors [19]. This genus is extremely diverse, comprising >100 taxa [20], with genitalia providing little help in identification and wing color pattern variation contributing to identification difficulties [21][22][23][24][25]. The color patterns of Speyeria species often co-vary geographically, especially among Western species, such that several species in a biogeographic area (i.e., mountain range or basin) resemble one another more than other taxonomically related subspecies. ...
... Recent molecular phylogenetic investigations have helped confirm the monophyly of Speyeria and its relationship to close relatives in the genera Argynnis and Fabriciana [19,35,36], but relationships within Speyeria remain unresolved. McHugh et al. [23] included several taxa from the Western United States in an analysis focused on S. zerene hippolyta, and found most species studied to be paraphyletic (with the exception of S. cybele) suspecting that ILS gave rise to the patterns seen in their analysis. De Moya et al. [19] analyzed exemplars of all North American Speyeria species [20], and similar to McHugh et al. [23], found many species to be paraphyletic, with relationships between many species or species groups within Speyeria poorly supported. ...
... McHugh et al. [23] included several taxa from the Western United States in an analysis focused on S. zerene hippolyta, and found most species studied to be paraphyletic (with the exception of S. cybele) suspecting that ILS gave rise to the patterns seen in their analysis. De Moya et al. [19] analyzed exemplars of all North American Speyeria species [20], and similar to McHugh et al. [23], found many species to be paraphyletic, with relationships between many species or species groups within Speyeria poorly supported. Campbell et al. [37] sampled Speyeria to validate methods using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) of non-model organisms, and to evaluate the relationships of Speyeria species. ...
Article
Full-text available
When confronted with an adaptive radiation, considerable evidence is needed to resolve the evolutionary relationships of these closely related lineages. The North American genus Speyeria is one especially challenging radiation of butterflies due to potential signs of incomplete lineage sorting, ongoing hybridization, and similar morphological characters between species. Previous studies have found species to be paraphyletic and have been unable to disentangle taxa, often due to a lack of data and/or incomplete sampling. As a result, Speyeria remains unresolved. To achieve phylogenetic resolution of the genus, we conducted phylogenomic and population genomic analyses of all currently recognized North American Speyeria species, as well as several subspecies, using restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq). Together, these analyses confirm the 16 canonical species, and clarify many internal relationships. However, a few relationships within Speyeria were poorly supported depending on the evolutionary model applied. This lack of resolution among certain taxa corroborates Speyeria is experiencing an ongoing adaptive radiation, with incomplete lineage sorting and lack of postzygotic reproductive barriers contributing to hybridization and further ambiguity. Given that many Speyeria taxa are under duress from anthropogenic factors, their legal protection must be viewed cautiously and on a case by case basis in order to properly conserve the diversity being generated.
... Using observation alone, enthusiasts may often have to settle for "Speyeria sp" [3], unless they can capture good photographs of both dorsal and ventral surfaces, and compare with local knowledge (i.e., collections) of the fauna. The taxonomic history of Speyeria species reflects this difficulty, with subspecies being moved from one species to another (e.g., gunderi (J. A. Comstock, 1925) and carolae (dos Passos and Grey, 1942)), and in some cases, subspecies are given species status [4][5][6]. ...
... However, recent studies have perhaps provided more questions than answers. For example, studies using the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase subunit I or subunit II (CoI or CoII) and multiple individuals per species have found several species to be paraphyletic [5,17]. Similar patterns of paraphyly were observed when analyzing several nuclear genes in combination with CoI for multiple individuals per species [8]. ...
... Together with recent phylogenetic work, this study helps clarify the geographic scale and approaches required to understand Speyeria butterflies and their evolution. Previous work with few nuclear and mtDNA (CoI or CoII) genes indicated the species were weakly differentiated [5,8] or that clustering depended on the data set [5] when sampling multiple subspecies at larger scales (i.e., west of the Rocky Mountains). In contrast, our analysis produced consistent clustering of species using a single marker when focusing on a scale of < 100 km between populations of S. zerene, S. adiaste and S. coronis, and < 300 km for S. callippe, in the California Coast ranges. ...
Article
Full-text available
North American Speyeria butterflies are a group of conservation concern and a challenge to butterfly systematists. Establishing species delimitation and evolutionary relationships among Speyeria has proven difficult due to the polytypic nature of many species, coupled with the similarity of wing patterns of sympatric species. Recent molecular work has found not all Speyeria species to be monophyletic, which could be explained by improper species definitions, incomplete lineage sorting, or ongoing hybridization and introgression. However, these studies involved broad geographic sampling where molecular markers such as the DNA barcode may be especially subject to incomplete lineage sorting. Here we focus on a more local scale, analyzing the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase subunit I (CoI) to test whether this marker recovers four sympatric Speyeria species: adiaste (W. H. Edwards, 1864), callippe (Boisduval, 1852), coronis (Behr, 1864), and zerene (Boisduval, 1852), in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. We found that CoI works well to separate all four species. Subspecies were less well-defined, with the S. adiaste subspecies clustering separately, but more mixed for the S. zerene and S. callippe subspecies. Overall, our analyses illustrate the utility of the DNA barcode for separating the Speyeria species and suggest further studies to investigate different geographic scales in order to elucidate genetic diversity patterns in this genus in North America.
... We evaluated the effects of clopyralid and fluazifop-Pbutyl on a surrogate subspecies, the Zerene silverspot (S. z. zerene), which is in the same species complex as the Oregon silverspot (McHugh et al. 2013;De Moya et al. 2017;Warren et al. 2017;Pelham 2021). Prior to this study, USFWS was aware of the potential value of using clopyralid and fluazifop-P-butyl in combination with either the Agri-Dex ® or Nu-Film ® -IR adjuvants, particularly in spring and fall, as management tools for habitat occupied by the Oregon silverspot, but lacked sufficient information regarding potential impacts for the butterfly (R. G. Chuck pers. ...
... We used the Zerene silverspot as a surrogate subspecies for the Oregon silverspot to test for the potential consequences of using two herbicides, clopyralid and fluazifop-P-butyl, each applied with one of two adjuvants, Agri-Dex ® and Nu-Film ® -IR, in habitat occupied by Oregon silverspots. The Zerene silverspot is a common subspecies in the same species complex as the Oregon silverspot (McHugh et al. 2013;De Moya et al. 2017;Warren et al. 2017;Pelham 2021). Unlike Oregon silverspots, Zerene silverspots reside in montane grasslands in the southern Cascade Range (James and Nunnallee 2011;Pyle and LaBar 2018). ...
Article
Full-text available
Herbicides are used as management tools to improve habitat for native plants and animals, but their application may also have harmful effects on the native community. The federally threatened Oregon silverspot butterfly (Speyeria = Argynnis zerene hippolyta) resides in remnant native grasslands along the Pacific Northwest coast. However, like many grasslands, many of these areas have high incidences of invasive plants, such as false dandelion (Hypochaeris radicata) and velvet grass (Holcus lanatus). These and other invasive plants severely limit the abundance of the Oregon silverspot’s larval host plant, the early blue violet (Viola adunca). Selective herbicides, such as clopyralid and fluazifop-P-butyl, can reduce invasive plant abundance. However, non-target effects of these herbicides, and of adjuvants applied with these herbicides, on Oregon silverspots are unknown. In our study, we applied herbicides and adjuvants to host plants and Zerene silverspot (S. z. zerene) larvae, a subspecies closely related to Oregon silverspots. Responses in silverspot larvae measured in two experiments included survival, sex ratio, development time, mass, morphology, fecundity, and behavior. Our results suggest that negative effects of herbicides, clopyralid and fluazifop-P-butyl, and adjuvants, Agri-Dex® and Nu-Film®-IR, are limited. However, we detected weak effects from clopyralid and fluazifop-P-butyl with and without Agri-Dex® on larval and pupal development time and pupal mass. Implications for insect conservation Our study contributes to the growing literature on non-target effects of herbicides on butterflies, which suggests that butterfly responses are species- and chemical-specific. For Speyeria species, our results indicate that the risks posed by the herbicides we examined are low. In management settings where herbicides are used to combat invasive species posing a conservation threat to native communities, monitoring the direct and indirect effects of herbicides on Oregon silverspots or other Speyeria butterflies will shed additional light on the risk–benefit tradeoffs.
... This may have important implications for conservation initiatives for S. zerene , which has multiple subspecies experiencing significant population declines in western regions where S. hesperis andS. zerene co-occur (McHugh et al. 2013;Sims 2017). While these genetic assessments have helped clarify some taxonomic ambiguities, there have been no attempts to assess whether genomic divergences correspond to variation in ecological niches and habitat associations. ...
... In contrast to mtDNA, nuclear SNPs across the range of S. hesperis do not show the same obvious reduction in genetic variability, suggesting that a strong selective sweep leading to a severe bottleneck event has recently caused the loss of other variable mitochondrial haplotypes (Sonsthagen et al. 2017;Hurst & Jiggins 2005). A candidate for facilitating such a process is Wolbachia Hertig & Wolbach, 1924, maternally-inherited, endosymbiotic bacteria that can facilitate the spread of particular mitochondrial haplotypes throughout populations and species, reducing haplotype variation (Werren et al. 2008;Kodandaramaiah et al. 2013;Ahmed et al. 2015).Wolbachia infections have been reported in severalSpeyeria species, including S. zerene (McHugh et al. 2013), but not yet within the S. atlantis-hesperis complex (Hamm et al. 2014). Wolbachia infection via introgression offers a plausible and testable hypothesis that could explain the observed haplotype sharing between Nevadan S. zerene gunderi andS. ...
... Because of the regional morphological similarities these subspecies share, they are prone to misidentification and have proven difficult even for experts to reliably identify using wing characters (Bird et al. 1995). While several studies have shown that populations of Speyeria are experiencing declines in the United States due to habitat loss and climate change (Swengel et al. 2011;Breed et al. 2013;McHugh et al. 2013;Shuey et al. 2016;Caven et al. 2017), Canadian populations of Speyeria have rarely been the focus of formal research, in spite of widespread anthropogenic pressure. Furthermore, even when investigated, assessing responses to changes in habitat at the species level is difficult due to the challenge of distinguishing different species based primarily on morphology (e.g., Riva et al. 2018a referred to a Speyeria "species complex"). ...
... In this study we assessed the effectiveness of morphological characters for identifying three Speyeria subspecies in the boreal region of Alberta. The taxonomy and evolution of Speyeria butterflies is an unsolved and intriguing puzzle (Dunford 2009;McHugh et al. 2013) which might have important applied implications in Alberta, where these sensitive taxa (Swengel et al. 2011;Shuey et al. 2016) inhabit areas subject to widespread anthropogenic disturbance (Riva et al. 2018a). Here, we collected 124 specimens from the Wood Buffalo Region and separated them into three subspecies based on known ranges and initial identification using 11 morphological characters suggested in regional field guides (Bird et al. 1995;Layberry et al. 1998;Guppy et al. 2001;Acorn and Sheldon 2006;Glassberg 2017). ...
Article
Full-text available
The pronounced morphological variability exhibited by Speyeria butterflies can hinder the identification of these taxa, and thus presents a challenge to their management and conservation. While several studies have documented declines in American populations of Speyeria due to habitat change, the response of Canadian populations of Speyeria to widespread anthropogenic pressures remains poorly understood due to their difficult identification. Here, we assessed the utility of morphological characters recommended in regional field guides for the identification of Speyeria butterflies in Canada, focusing on three morphologically variable subspecies that inhabit boreal forests subject to widespread oil sands extraction: S. aphrodite manitoba, S. atlantis hollandi, and S. hesperis beani. We scored 159 specimens for 11 morphological characters , and complimented this data by sequencing the barcode region of the COI gene for 15 of these specimens. Our results indicate a high level of intraspecific variability in several characters, and the COI gene revealed that initial morphological identifications were incorrect. A further assessment of character reliability identified sets of morphological characters that, in combination with specimen sex and species natural history, improved subspecies identification. Notably, we found that a relatively novel field marker-in vivo eye color-consistently distinguished S. aphrodite manitoba from S. hesperis beani and S. atlantis hollandi. Our results emphasize the importance of using an integrative approach for the accurate identification of morphologically variable species, particularly in situations where molecular methods are not readily available, such as citizen science programs.
... This can result in a reduction of haplotype variation consistent with selective sweeps, and contribute to mitonuclear discordance(Ahmed et al., 2015;Arif et al., 2021;Kodandaramaiah et al., 2013;Werren et al., 2008). Wolbachia infections have been reported in several Speyeria species, including S. zerene(McHugh et al., 2013), but not yet within the S. atlantis-hesperis complex(Hamm et al., 2014). This could also explain haplotype sharing between Nevadan S. zerene gunderi J.A. Comstock, 1925 and S. hesperis in the absence of contemporary nuclear admixture in the sampled specimens. ...
Article
Recent advances in both genomics and ecological modelling present new, multidisciplinary opportunities for resolving species boundaries and understanding the mechanisms that maintain their integrity in regions of contact. Here, we use a combination of high‐throughput DNA sequencing and ecological niche modelling to resolve species boundaries and niche divergence within the Speyeria atlantis‐hesperis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) complex, a confusing group of North American butterflies. This complex is notorious for its muddled species delimitations, morphological ambiguity, and extensive mito‐nuclear discordance. Our admixture and multispecies coalescent‐based analyses of single nucleotide polymorphisms identified substantial divergences between S. atlantis and S. hesperis in areas of contact, as well as between distinct northern and southern lineages within S. hesperis. Our results also provide evidence of past introgression relating to another species, S. zerene, which previous work has shown to be more distantly related to the S. atlantis‐hesperis complex. We then used ecological models to predict habitat suitability for each of the three recovered genomic lineages in the S. atlantis‐hesperis complex and assess their pairwise niche divergence. These analyses resolved that these three lineages are significantly diverged in their respective niches and are not separated by discontinuities in suitable habitat that might present barriers to gene flow. We therefore infer that ecologically‐mediated selection resulting in disparate habitat associations is a principal mechanism reinforcing their genomic integrity. Overall, our results unambiguously support significant evolutionary and ecological divergence between the northern and southern lineages of S. hesperis, sufficient to recognize the southern evolutionary lineage as a distinct species, called S. nausicaa based on taxonomic priority.
... For effective conservation, or to understand how species will respond and adapt to environmental and anthropogenic changes, it is important that we try to understand the intricate relationships that microbes have with the hosts in which they reside. Fortunately there is increasing recognition of this importance with several recent studies reporting endosymbiont infections in populations of endangered or near threatened Lepidoptera (Nice et al., 2009;Sakamoto et al., 2011;Patricelli et al., 2013;McHugh et al., 2013;Łukasiewicz, Sanak & Węgrzyn, 2016;Fenner et al., 2017). One study surveying 22 species of conservation concern (comprising members of the Lycaenidae, Nymphalidae, Hesperidae and Noctuidae) for Wolbachia found 19 to be infected (Hamm et al., 2014). ...
Article
Full-text available
The Lepidoptera is one of the most widespread and recognisable insect orders. Due to their remarkable diversity, economic and ecological importance, moths and butterflies have been studied extensively over the last 200 years. More recently, the relationship between Lepidoptera and their heritable microbial endosymbionts has received increasing attention. Heritable endosymbionts reside within the host’s body and are often, but not exclusively, inherited through the female line. Advancements in molecular genetics have revealed that host-associated microbes are both extremely prevalent among arthropods and highly diverse. Furthermore, heritable endosymbionts have been repeatedly demonstrated to play an integral role in many aspects of host biology, particularly host reproduction. Here, we review the major findings of research of heritable microbial endosymbionts of butterflies and moths. We promote the Lepidoptera as important models in the study of reproductive manipulations employed by heritable endosymbionts, with the mechanisms underlying male-killing and feminisation currently being elucidated in moths and butterflies. We also reveal that the vast majority of research undertaken of Lepidopteran endosymbionts concerns Wolbachia . While this highly prevalent bacterium is undoubtedly important, studies should move towards investigating the presence of other, and interacting endosymbionts, and we discuss the merits of examining the microbiome of Lepidoptera to this end. We finally consider the importance of understanding the influence of endosymbionts under global environmental change and when planning conservation management of endangered Lepidoptera species.
Article
Full-text available
More than 170 subspecies are listed as threatened or endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. Most of these subspecies were described decades ago on the basis of geographical variation in morphology using relatively primitive taxonomic methods. The US Fish and Wildlife Service defaults to subspecies descriptions by taxonomists working with specific groups of organisms, but there is no single definition of subspecies across plants and animals. Valid tests today usually entail molecular analyses of variation within and among populations, although there is no reason that behavioral, ecological or molecular characters could not be used, and include tests for significant differences between samples of the putative endangered subspecies and its nearest geographic relatives. We evaluated data gathered since subspecies listed under the ESA were described finding about one-third are valid (distinct evolutionary taxa), one-third are not, and one-third have not been tested. Therefore, it should not be assumed that because a subspecies occurs in a checklist, it is taxonomically valid. If the US Fish and Wildlife Service intends to continue listing subspecies, we suggest that they convene taxonomic experts representing various groups of organisms to provide a minimal set of criteria for a subspecies to be listed under the ESA.
Article
The genetic compatibility of the most divergent species within the genus Speyeria was tested in 25 different hybrid crosses and back-crosses. In addition, the inheritance and expression of various phenotypic characters of wing pattern and coloration were studied including examples of extreme sexual dimorphism in certain species. These characters are important for the taxonomic diagnosis and identification of the various Speyeria taxa. Most of these characters or traits appear to have a complex polygenic inheritance with more continuous ranges of variation that have often become fixated at one end of the continuum for many taxa. However, other characters show a simpler Mendelian inheritance of dominant or recessive expressions. Some color pattern traits appear to be unique for one or two species, but most characters appear to be widely shared among many different Speyeria taxa. The results of these hybrid crosses suggest that extensive interspecies gene flow through natural hybridization may have been important in shaping the past evolutionary history of this genus. Also, the extensive clinal intergradation between highly divergent eastern and western subspecies of S. atlantis is documented in northwestern Minnesota.
Article
Full-text available
Although much biological research depends upon species diagnoses, taxonomic expertise is collapsing. We are convinced that the sole prospect for a sustainable identification capability lies in the construction of systems that employ DNA sequences as taxon 'barcodes'. We establish that the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) can serve as the core of a global bioidentification system for animals. First, we demonstrate that COI profiles, derived from the low-density sampling of higher taxonomic categories, ordinarily assign newly analysed taxa to the appropriate phylum or order. Second, we demonstrate that species-level assignments can be obtained by creating comprehensive COI profiles. A model COI profile, based upon the analysis of a single individual from each of 200 closely allied species of lepidopterans, was 100% successful in correctly identifying subsequent specimens. When fully developed, a COI identification system will provide a reliable, cost-effective and accessible solution to the current problem of species identification. Its assembly will also generate important new insights into the diversification of life and the rules of molecular evolution.
Article
Abstract Accurate phylogenies are crucial for understanding evolutionary processes, especially species diversification. It is commonly assumed that “good” species are sufficiently isolated genetically that gene genealogies represent accurate phylogenies. However, it is increasingly clear that good species may continue to exchange genetic material through hybridization (introgression). Many studies of closely related species reveal introgression of some genes without others, often with more rapid introgression of maternally inherited chloroplast or mitochondrial DNA (cpDNA, mtDNA). We seek a general explanation for this biased introgression using simple models of common reproductive isolating barriers (RIBs). We compare empirically informed models of prezygotic isolation (for pre- and postinsemination mechanisms of both female choice and male competition) with postzygotic isolation and demonstrate that rate of introgression depends critically upon type of RIB and mode of genetic inheritance (maternal versus biparental versus paternal). Our frequency-dependent prezygotic RIBs allow much more rapid introgression of biparentally and maternally inherited genes than do commonly modeled postzygotic RIBs (especially maternally inherited DNA). After considering the specific predictions in the context of empirical observations, we conclude that our model of prezygotic RIBs is a general explanation for biased introgression of maternally inherited genomic components. These findings suggest that we should use extreme caution when interpreting single gene genealogies as species phylogenies, especially for cpDNA and mtDNA.
Article
A taxonomic overview for the fritillary genus Speyeria Scudder (= Argynnis Fabricius) and its placement within the Heliconiinae (Nymphalidae) is presented. Taxonomic accounts, type images, and relevant literature for the 25 subspecies within the Speyeria atlantis (Edwards) and Speyeria hesperis (Edwards) complexes and the 16 nominate Speyeria species are included. Errors in nomenclature are identified, taxonomic, life history, and distributional information are updated, and type locality information is discussed. Images of primary type specimens for all 16 Speyeria species and the 25 subspecies in the atlantis - hesperis complexes appear together in color here for the first time. One new combination of a species-subspecies is created: Speyeria hesperis hanseni Emmel, Emmel, and Matoon, 1998, new combination, which was previously Speyeria atlantis hanseni Emmel, Emmel, and Matoon.
Article
For purposes of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a "species' is defined to include "any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrates fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature'. Federal agencies charged with carrying out the provisions of the ESA have struggled to develop a consistent approach for interpreting the term "distinct population segment'. This paper outlines such an approach and explains how it can be applied to ESA evaluations of anadromous Pacific salmonids. The following definition is proposed: a population (or group of populations) will be considered "distinct" (and hence a "species') for purposes of the ESA if it represents an evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) of the biological species. A population must satisfy two criteria to be considered an ESU: 1) it must be substantially reproductively isolated from other conspecific population units, and 2) it must represent an important component in the evolutionary legacy of the species. -from Author
Article
The fritillary genus Speyeria is represented by 10 species in California and Nevada. All the species are univoltine and their only known food plants are the North American Viola. Most of the species have broad geographic ranges but usually occur colonially within their ranges and are confined to certain elevations and habitats. Some of the species are distinct morphologically while others are virtually indistinguishable in some locations. Most of the species have phenotypically distinct subspecies. Sixteen loci were analyzed electrophoretically for each of the 10 species to determine the genetic differentiation between species and subspecies. Heterozygosities ranged from 0.034-0.149 with a mean for the 10 species of 0.102. The average genetic distance between the species was D̄ = 0.182 ± 0.013. Using these gene loci as diagnostic characters, five of the 10 species were not distinguishable from each other with a probability greater than 0.95. The average genetic distance between subspecies was D̄ = 0.023 ± 0.008. The more vagile species, S. zerene, was found to have less differentiation between its subspecies than S. callippe which is strongly colonial. The average genetic distance between local populations was D̄ = 0.013 ± 0.003. The Lewontin-Krakauer test was used to test for heterogeneity of the estimated effective inbreeding coefficients, F̂e, among populations of S. callippe and S. zerene. When subspecific boundaries were ignored, we found significant heterogeneity in the F̂e values. However, in the one subspecies where we had sufficient data for the test, S. callippe liliana, we found no significant heterogeneity. These results indicate that either selection is an important factor in maintaining protein polymorphisms or that the Lewontin-Krakauer test is quite sensitive to deviations from the assumed population structure.
Article
This paper examines life history anl adaptations of Speyeria zerene hippolyta (Edwards) along the Oregon and Washington coasts where cold wind, rain, and fog persist during much of the year. The butterfly uses an open grassland habitat on saltcspray meadows and higher headlands adjacent to the ocean, where the larvae-feed on the common Viola adunca J. E. Smith. Four unusual adaptations to this environment are seen in S. zerene hippolyta that are absent from the closely related S. z. bremnerii (Edwards) of the inland Willamette Valley: small body size and extensive dark basal suffusion which enhance body heating from solar radiation; normal flight activity under cool, cloudy or foggy conditions; prolonged larval development which coordinates adult emergence with the most favorable weather conditions in late summer and fall; and much individual variation in larval development rate and adult emergence which compensates for variable and unpredictable weather from year to year. Additional key words: Speyeria zerene bremnerii, Viola adunca, adaptation, grass-land, coastal habitat.
Article
Several proposals have been launched under the new concept ‘integrative taxonomy’ to frame the future development of species discovery and description. We consider that some of those proposals have failed to be truly integrative, by not acknowledging the limitations of operational definitions of species, by defending some kinds of evidence as universally superior, by considering taxonomy to be irreconcilable with population genetics, or by ignoring that the heterogeneity of evolutionary processes often precludes full character congruence in species. Here we defend a taxonomy where species exist, but not in any particular way everyone might want them to exist; a taxonomy open to data and methods from population biology, phylogeography and phylogenetics, as well as any other discipline providing evidence about the origin and evolution of species. This new taxonomy embraces all the consequences of considering species as lineages of reproductive populations, encouraging the use of as many lines of evidence as possible, but without negating that a single line may also be the only one providing evidence for a particular species. Species cannot only be those reproductive populations showing broad character congruence and/or reproductive isolation, due to the different degrees of character congruence, as well as of reproductive isolation, that result from the heterogeneity of evolutionary processes causing lineage splitting and divergence. Also, any kind of character – and not only those established by tradition or fashion – is potentially relevant as evidence of lineage divergence. To conciliate the authors who only see species supported by broad character congruence as good species hypotheses, we explain how a hypothesis can gain corroboration using single or multiple lines of evidence, even in cases of discordance with other lines of evidence. Finally, we propose guidelines to identify the expected degree of stability (preliminary, unstable, and stable) of species hypotheses. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 101, 747–756.