RESEARCH ARTICLE Repeated Reticulate Evolution in North American Papilio machaon Group Swallowtail Butterflies Julian R. Dupuis*, Felix A. H. Sperling Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada *
[email protected] Abstract Hybridization between distinct populations or species is increasingly recognized as an important process for generating biodiversity. However, the interaction between hybridiza- tion and speciation is complex, and the diverse evolutionary outcomes of hybridization are OPEN ACCESS difficult to differentiate. Here we characterize potential hybridization in a species group of Citation: Dupuis JR, Sperling FAH (2015) Repeated swallowtail butterflies using microsatellites, DNA sequences, and morphology, and assess Reticulate Evolution in North American Papilio whether adaptive introgression or homoploid hybrid speciation was the primary process machaon Group Swallowtail Butterflies. PLoS ONE leading to each putative hybrid lineage. Four geographically separated hybrid populations 10(10): e0141882. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0141882 were identified in the Papilio machaon species group. One distinct mitochondrial DNA clade Editor: Igor V Sharakhov, Virginia Tech, UNITED from P. machaon was fixed in three hybrid taxa (P. brevicauda, P. joanae, and P. m. kahli), STATES while one hybrid swarm (P. zelicaon x machaon) exhibited this hybrid mtDNA clade as well Received: March 10, 2015 as widespread parental mtDNA haplotypes from both parental species. Microsatellite mark- Accepted: October