Do pollen feeding and pupal-mating have a single origin in Heliconius? Inferences from multilocus sequence data.

Abstract:

Phylogenetic information is useful in understanding the evolutionary history of adaptive traits. Here, we presenta well-resolved phylogenetic hypothesis for Heliconius butterflies and related genera. We use this tree toinvestigate the evolution of three traits, pollen feeding, pupal-mating behaviour and larval gregariousness.Phylogenetic relationships among 60 Heliconiina species (86% of the subtribe) were inferred from partial DNAsequences of the mitochondrial genes cytochrome oxidase I, cytochrome oxidase II and 16S rRNA, and fragmentsof the nuclear genes elongation factor-1a, apterous, decapentaplegic and wingless (3834 bp in total). The resultscorroborate previous hypotheses based on sequence data in showing that Heliconius is paraphyletic, with Laparusdoris and Neruda falling within the genus, demonstrating a single origin for pollen feeding but with a loss of thetrait in Neruda. However, different genes are not congruent in their placement of Neruda; therefore, monophylyof the pollen feeding species cannot be ruled out. There is also a highly supported monophyletic ‘pupal-matingclade’ suggesting that pupal mating behaviour evolved only once in the Heliconiina. Additionally, we observed atleast three independent origins for larval gregariousness from a solitary ancestor, showing that gregarious larvalbehaviour arose after warning coloration. © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of theLinnean Society, 2007, 92, 221–239.