Out of Asia: Intercontinental dispersals after the Eocene-Oligocene transition shaped the zoogeography of Limenitidinae butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Abstract

Most members of the nymphalid subfamily Limenitidinae are distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Previous studies have inferred their higher-level phylogeny and found that Southeast Asia seems to be the center of origin, with numerous dispersal events to other continents. However, the complete biogeographic history of Limenitidinae butterflies is still largely unknown. We sampled 181 taxa from 164 species and used a metagenomic method to obtain 40 genes (mitogenomes and three nuclear ribosomal loci) for inferring the historical biogeography of the group. We find that Limenitidinae originated in eastern Asia during the early Eocene (ca. 52 Ma) and started to diversify and disperse into Africa before the end of Eocene. Intercontinental exchanges between Africa and eastern Asia continued in the early Miocene: Asian Adoliadini and Asian endemic taxa Bhagadatta had African origins in the Oligocene, whereas African Neptini dispersed in the opposite direction from Asia in the early Miocene. In addition, ancestors of the tribes Limenitidini and Adoliadini dispersed into the Neotropics and Australasia multiple times during the early-to-middle Miocene. Eastern Asia is the center of origin of the tribe Limenitidini, with several taxa disjunctly distributed in eastern Asia and the Americas. Our work provides a robust phylogenetic hypothesis of relationships in the tribe Limenitidini and suggests that the alala-species group of Adelpha should be placed in the genus Limenitis. Renamed taxa comb. nov. based on our findings are listed in the text.