A Classification of Danaus Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)
Blackwell Science, LtdOxford, UKZOJZoological Journal of the Linnean Society0024-4082The Lin- nean Society of London, 2005? 2005 1442 191212 Original Article CLASSIFICATION OF DANAUSD. A. S. SMITH ET AL. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005, 144, 191–212. With 3 figures A classification of Danaus butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based upon data from morphology and DNA DAVID A. S. SMITH FLS1*, GUGS LUSHAI FLS2 and JOHN A. ALLEN FLS2 1Natural History Museum, Eton College, Windsor SL4 6EW, UK 2Ecology & Biodiversity Division, School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton SO16 7PX, UK Received September 2003; accepted for publication March 2005 Classification of the cosmopolitan butterfly genus Danaus (Nymphalidae: Danainae) is revised at subgeneric, specific and subspecific levels, combining for the first time mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence information with mor- phological data. Tree topologies based on the nuclear genome (allozymes, pheromone components, the morphology of all life history stages and nuclear DNA sequences), on the one hand, and mitochondrial DNA, on the other, are incon- gruent and challenge the current taxonomy of the genus. Although earlier classifications, based on adult morphology alone, are, in general, well supported by an analysis of total evidence, the mitochondrial phylogeny shows that the species D. chrysippus and its subgenus Anosia are deeply paraphyletic. Subspecies dorippus of D. chrysippus is the basal clade of the genus and is reinstated as the species D. dorippus. The former species D. plexaure is demoted to a subspecies of D. eresimus. The specific status of D. erippus, as distinct from D. plexippus, is tentatively supported. On the strength of the new data, division of the monophyletic genus Danaus s.l.
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