The green-veined white (Pieris napi L.), its Pierine relatives, and the systematics dilemmas of divergent character sets (Lepidoptera, Pieridae)

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The butterfly Pieris napi (L.) and relatives exemplify recently evolving taxa, exhibiting variation that makes their evolutionary dynamics interesting, but their systematics difficult. Wing-pattern characters commonly used to distinguish these Holarctic insects display both genetic polymorphism and environmentally cued polyphenism. Often, these causes of variation are confounded, impairing the characters’ phylogenetic usefulness. DNA sequences of four mitochondrial genes offer an independent view of pierine phylogeny. Sampling diverse relatives within family Pieridae assists resolution of the P. napi complex, suggests previous underestimation of clade diversity in subfamily Pierinae, and shows that other genera near Pieris also display confusions of wing-pattern-based phylogenetic inference. The European P. napi is sister to all North American taxa and is well diverged from them all in sequences. The North American taxa comprise a northern subclade, including P. oleracea and questionably distinct P. ‘angelika,’ and a southern subclade, including distinct P. virginiensis, P. marginalis, and P. macdunnoughii, as well as other regional entities yet to be clarified. Weak bootstrap support for some nodes in this group arises from a closeness of sequence identity rather than character conflict; more sequence data and denser geographical sampling may resolve these nodes more clearly. Evidence of reproductive isolation, from other experimental hybridization studies, agrees with the DNA results where these conflict with other divergent character sets. The system offers much promise for a deeper understanding of character evolution in relation to phyletic differentiation.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Invertebrates

CSE-Style citation: Chew FS, Watt WB. 2006. The green-veined white (Pieris napi L.), its Pierine relatives, and the systematics dilemmas of divergent character sets (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 88:413–435. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1095-83....