[Taxacom] Butterfly biogeography

[John Grehan]

For those interested in the following article, a copy can be downloaded at
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hk1d63p#main

John Grehan

Vicariance and ecological dispersal in Papilio subgenus Achillides
(Papilionidae) and some other butterflies of Asia and the Southwest Pacific

Biogeographic patterns are reviewed for four widespread Southeast Asia
butterfly groups in the superfamily Papilionoidea: Papilio subgenus
Achillides Hübner, 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.