Abstract
Hesperiidae is one of the largest families of butterflies. Our knowledge of the higher systematics on hesperiids from China is still very limited. We infer the phylogenetic relationships of the subfamilies of Chinese skippers based on three mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b (Cytb), the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) and cytochrome oxidase I (COI)). In this study, 30 species in 23 genera were included in the Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses. The subfamily Coeliadinae, Eudaminae, Pyrginae and Heteropterinae were recovered as a monophyletic clade with strong support. The subfamily Hesperiinae formed a clade, but support for monophyly was weak. Our results imply that the five subfamilies of Chinese Hesperiidae should be divided into: Coeliadinae, Eudaminae, Pyrginae, Heteropterinae and Hesperiinae. The relationships of the five subfamilies should be as follows: Coeliadinae + (Eudaminae + (Pyrginae + (Heteropterinae + Hesperiinae))).
Highlights
Hesperiidae is one of the largest families of butterflies
In the family Hesperiidae, Coeliadinae with morphological synapomorphies is relatively unique and easy to be distinguished from the remaining subfamilies[5,7]
The five genera (Bibasis, Burara, Hasora, Badamia, Choaspes) in this subfamily are distributed in China
Summary
Hesperiidae is one of the largest families of butterflies. Our knowledge of the higher systematics on hesperiids from China is still very limited. With information from molecular systematics studies in the past two decades, Warren et al.[13] proposed the recent classification of Hesperiidae, to include five subfamilies: Coeliadinae, Pyrginae, Heteropterinae, Trapezitinae and Hesperiinae. With combined molecular and morphological data, Warren et al.[14] subsequently revised the classification of Hesperiidae to include seven subfamilies: Coeliadinae, Euschemoninae, Eudaminae, Pyrginae, Heteropterinae, Trapezitinae and Hesperiinae. Hesperiidae contains approximately 370 described species in 83 genera in China[15] and so far there has been no molecular study of the higher-level phylogeny of the Chinese skipper butterflies. We used DNA sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cytb), the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) and cytochrome oxidase I (COI) to analyze the phylogenetic relationships of the genera in Hesperiidae
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