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Free, publicly-accessible full text available July 9, 2025
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Abstract When organisms experience secondary contact after allopatric divergence, genomic regions can introgress differentially depending on their relationships with adaptation, reproductive isolation, recombination, and drift. Analyses of genome‐wide patterns of divergence and introgression could provide insight into the outcomes of hybridization and the potential relationship between allopatric divergence and reproductive isolation. Here, we generate population genetic data (26,262 SNPs; 353 individuals) using a reduced‐representation sequencing approach to quantify patterns of ancestry, differentiation, and introgression between a pair of ecologically distinct mammals—the desert woodrat (N.lepida) and Bryant's woodrat (N.bryanti)—that hybridize at a sharp ecotone in southern California. Individual ancestry estimates confirmed that hybrids were rare in this bimodal hybrid zone, and entirely consisted of a few F1individuals and a broad range of multigenerational backcrosses. Genomic cline analyses indicated more than half of loci had elevated introgression from one genomic background into the other. However, introgression was not associated with relative or absolute measures of divergence, and loci with extreme values for both were not typically found near detoxification enzymes previously implicated in dietary specialization for woodrats. The decoupling of differentiation and introgression suggests that processes other than adaptation, such as drift, may underlie the extreme clines at this contact zone.more » « less
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Abstract Ongoing declines in insect populations have led to substantial concern and calls for conservation action. However, even for relatively well studied groups, like butterflies, information relevant to species‐specific status and risk is scattered across field guides, the scientific literature, and agency reports. Consequently, attention and resources have been spent on a minuscule fraction of insect diversity, including a few well studied butterflies. Here we bring together heterogeneous sources of information for 396 butterfly species to provide the first regional assessment of butterflies for the 11 western US states. For 184 species, we use monitoring data to characterize historical and projected trends in population abundance. For another 212 species (for which monitoring data are not available, but other types of information can be collected), we use exposure to climate change, development, geographic range, number of host plants, and other factors to rank species for conservation concern. A phylogenetic signal is apparent, with concentrations of declining and at‐risk species in the families Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae. A geographic bias exists in that many species that lack monitoring data occur in the more southern states where we expect that impacts of warming and drying trends will be most severe. Legal protection is rare among the taxa with the highest risk values: of the top 100 species, one is listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act and one is a candidate for listing. Among the many taxa not currently protected, we highlight a short list of species in decline, includingVanessa annabella,Thorybes mexicanus,Euchloe ausonides, andPholisora catullus. Notably, many of these species have broad geographic ranges, which perhaps highlights a new era of insect conservation in which small or fragmented ranges will not be the only red flags that attract conservation attention.more » « less