Taxacom: Satyrium curiosolus sp. nov by SNPs alone

[David Campbell]

For any given taxon, it's important to test whether the characters used
seem to actually delineate plausible groups or just vary within
populations.  That is true of molecular and morphological characters.
Whether these particular characters are good, I do not know, but I would
want to see intermediate populations sampled to look for a break between
them, rather than just "way over here had lots of differences from way over
there".  As another example, I know of a genus name where the cited
diagnostic character was the length of a variable region in the DNA.  Not a
good choice - given that the region is quite variable in this particular
family of snails, different taxa converge on the same length.  The actual
sequences would have been a much better marker.

On Sat, Apr 26, 2025 at 2:05?PM John Grehan via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> New article presents a new species that is apparently unambiguously
> recognizable by a set of SNPs
>
> Genomic and ecological divergence support recognition of a new species of
> endangered Satyrium butterfly (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae)
> <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fzookeys.pensoft.net%2Farticle%2F143893%2F&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C334159aee6c3477bb0c508dd8504d7cb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638812978034936901%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Yr8aV7zUjqopJlsSG2J%2FDZsB2U3cr56crZPJEJH9RTc%3D&reserved=0>
>
> I have no problem with species being recognized solely by molecular
> differences as this is no different to species recognized by internal
> structural differences that are not evident externally (i.e. the defining
> characteristics are 'cryptic'. The authors note that " identification
> without reference to source locality is most reliably achieved by DNA as
> follows, with representative (see Remarks section) diagnostic single
> nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are fixed for S. curiosolus"  In their
> Remarks section they note that " 21,985 SNPs across 22 scaffolds that were
> fixed for alternate nucleotides between individuals from Alberta and those
> from Montana and British Columbia"
>
> I'm no molecular population theorists, but hopefully some on TAXACOM are,
> and could comment on this, whether it is a strong indicator of species
> level divergence rather than a geographic population divergence within a
> molecular polytypic species.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John Grehan
> --
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> link, then the 'Ghost Moth Research page' link.
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-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
110 S Main St, #7270
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017