Abstract
Author(s): Grehan, John R | Abstract: Biogeographic patterns are reviewed for four widespread Southeast Asia butterfly groups in the superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilio subgenus Achillides Hubner, 1819 (Papilionidae), the birdwing butterflies (Papilionidae tribe Troidini), Genus Polyura Billberg, 1820 (Nymphalidae), and Genus Vanessa Fabricius, 1807 (Nymphalidae). The patterns of allopatry and sympatry are shown to be consistent with the vicariance of widespread ancestors with distributions including parts of Asia and Australasia, followed by secondary range expansion. Aspects of the distributions that are correlated with tectonic structures provide evidence of the age and origin of these butterflies in South-east Asia and Australasia. The transpacific affinities of the Troidini are consistent with a Pacific ancestry linked with former Cretaceous landscapes. The multi-island ranges of many of the butterfly species in Southeast Asia represent examples of metapopulation structure in which groups survive and persist in a region over long periods of time, even where individual islands are ephemeral.
Highlights
Butterflies are generally vagile organisms capable of flight over extended distances, sometimes even between continents
Distributional and phylogenetic information on Achillides is mapped below in the following sequence: 1. The distribution ranges of the four principle Achillides clades are mapped to illustrate the extent of allopatry and sympatry
Distribution patterns are assessed for their consistency with the expectations of allopatric differentiation or dispersal
Summary
Butterflies are generally vagile organisms capable of flight over extended distances, sometimes even between continents. Though, many butterfly species and some higher taxa have geographically localized distributions, even when there are no obvious barriers to range expansion. Both widespread and localized butterfly taxa may show patterns of allopatry where sister taxa (species level or higher) occupy different geographic sectors, so they effectively ‘replace’ each other in geographic space. Biogeographia 34: 101–117 characteristic of many taxa spanning almost all taxonomic levels in both animals and plants It is evolutionarily significant because isolation is required for differentiation to occur between different localities (Croizat 1958, Craw et al 1999, Heads 2012, 2014, 2017)
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