Abstract
Although the butterflies of North America have received considerable taxonomic attention, overlooked species and instances of hybridization continue to be revealed. The present study assembles a DNA barcode reference library for this fauna to identify groups whose patterns of sequence variation suggest the need for further taxonomic study. Based on 14,626 records from 814 species, DNA barcodes were obtained for 96% of the fauna. The maximum intraspecific distance averaged 1/4 the minimum distance to the nearest neighbor, producing a barcode gap in 76% of the species. Most species (80%) were monophyletic, the others were para- or polyphyletic. Although 15% of currently recognized species shared barcodes, the incidence of such taxa was far higher in regions exposed to Pleistocene glaciations than in those that were ice-free. Nearly 10% of species displayed high intraspecific variation (>2.5%), suggesting the need for further investigation to assess potential cryptic diversity. Aside from aiding the identification of all life stages of North American butterflies, the reference library has provided new perspectives on the incidence of both cryptic and potentially over-split species, setting the stage for future studies that can further explore the evolutionary dynamics of this group.
Highlights
DNA barcoding is an effective tool for addressing the widely recognized need for an improved understanding of biodiversity
Estimates of sampling completeness were performed with iNEXT on 63.8% (402 of 630) of the species in the truncated list (Table S1). This analysis, which considered 12,860 specimens, indicated that their 3,212 unique haplotypes corresponded to 67% of the haplotype diversity in this subset of North American butterflies (Table S1)
This study revealed that 15% of North American butterfly species share their DNA barcodes with another species
Summary
DNA barcoding is an effective tool for addressing the widely recognized need for an improved understanding of biodiversity. Since its introduction, this marker has been adopted in fields ranging from population genetics (Hajibabaei et al, 2007), phylogenetics (Hajibabaei et al, 2007), and phylogeography (Dapporto et al, 2019) to ecology (Valentini, Pompanon & Taberlet, 2009) and conservation (Dincă et al, 2018). It has gained application in contexts ranging from the detection of marketplace fraud (Galimberti et al, 2013) to the suppression of illegal trade in endangered species (Rehman et al, 2015)
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