The Old‐World Tropics encompass many unique biomes and associated biotas shaped by drastic climate and geological changes throughout the Cenozoic. Disjunct distributions of clades between the Afrotropics and the Oriental regions are testament to these changes. Awl and policeman skippers (Hesperiidae: Coeliadinae) are disjunctly distributed with some genera endemic to the Afrotropics and others restricted to the Oriental and Australian regions. We reconstruct the phylogeny of these butterflies using target exon capture phylogenomics. We also generate a dated framework for this clade that uses the putatively oldest known butterfly fossil to estimate the historical biogeography of Coeliadinae using a model‐based approach. We infer a stable and robust phylogeny for the subfamily, with all but one Afrotropical lineage forming a derived clade. The African genus
The origin of taxa presenting a disjunct distribution between Africa and Asia has puzzled biogeographers for more than a century. This biogeographic pattern has been hypothesized to be the result of transoceanic long‐distance dispersal, Oligocene dispersal through forested corridors, Miocene dispersal through the Arabian Peninsula or passive dispersal on the rifting Indian plate. However, it has often been difficult to pinpoint the mechanisms at play. We investigate biotic exchange between the Afrotropics and the Oriental region during the Cenozoic, a period in which geological changes altered landmass connectivity. We use Baorini skippers (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae) as a model, a widespread clade of butterflies in the Old World tropics with a disjunct distribution between the Afrotropics and the Oriental region. We use anchored phylogenomics to infer a robust evolutionary tree for Baorini skippers and estimate divergence times and ancestral ranges to test biogeographic hypotheses. Our phylogenomic tree recovers strongly supported relationships for Baorini skippers and clarifies the systematics of the tribe. Dating analyses suggest that these butterflies originated in the Oriental region, Greater Sunda Islands, and the Philippines in the early Miocene
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10460306
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Systematic Entomology
- Volume:
- 44
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0307-6970
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 926-938
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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