Resolving the reign of chaos?

The systematics and evolutionary history of Nymphalidae

Welcome to the home page of the Nymphalidae Systematics Group at the Laboratory of Genetics, University of Turku. The group is headed by Niklas Wahlberg and our major goal is to elucidate the evolutionary history of the butterfly family Nymphalidae. As the title of this web page indicates, the systematics of the family has been a mess until recently, which has hindered studying its evolutionary history. One of the main foci of our group has been to elucidate the phylogeny of Nymphalidae using molecular methods as well as traditional morphological characters. We are also investigating the times of divergences of major clades and their historical biogeography in an order to figure out why there is such a high diversity of forms and lifestyles in Nymphalidae.

The NSG aims to contribute to the understanding of evolutionary processes that are involved in diversification of species. As a model group, Nymphalidae is of exceptional utility in studies of evolutionary processes. The uneven distribution of its species on Earth as well as in evolutionary lineages allow comparisons of groups of species to identify similarities and differences in their evolutionary histories. Species belonging to Nymphalidae have also long been used as model systems in areas of research such as metapopulation biology, evo-devo, evolutionary ecology and evolution of mating barriers and mimicry. The amount of ecological data amassed for species of this family is enormous, with many books being published on regional fauna that contain much of this information. However, the evolutionary history of the family has been shrouded in mystery.

The NSG uses mainly molecular methods in its work. In order to document our sources of DNA, we have a policy of putting up images of our voucher specimens (when available) on the internet. To access these images follow the Voucher database link above. We also aim to link our voucher images with their respective DNA sequences on public databases through GenBank's LinkOut service.

Current major projects on Nymphalidae include:

• Phylogeny of temperate Coenonymphina (Ullasa Kodandaramaiah's PhD project, in collaboration with Michael Braby, Sören Nylin and Roger Grund)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of Morpho based on morphology and molecules (in collaboration with Carla Penz and Phil DeVries)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of Cyrestinae
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of Hipparchia (Julien Leneveu's PhD project, in collaboration with Otakar Kudrna and Valerio Sbordoni)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeography of Melitaea deione (Julien Leneveu's PhD project)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of Erebia (Master's project of Heike Witthauer)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of Chlosyne (in collaboration with Andrew D. Warren, Jorge Llorente and Jonathan Pelham)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of the Taygetis-group (PhD project of Pavel Matos, in collaboration with André Freitas, Carlos Peña and Keith Willmott)
• Manuscript in preparation
• Phylogeny of butterflies and skippers based on molecules and morphology (in collaboration with Lauri Kaila, Maria Heikkilä and Marko Mutanen)
• Analyses in progress
• Phylogeny of the Melitaea phoebe group (Julien Leneveu's PhD project, in collaboration with Zdravko Kolev)
• Specimens being sequenced
• Phylogeny of Limenitidinae (in collaboration with Sean Mullen, Anton Chichvarkhin and Keith Willmott)
• Specimens being sequenced
• Phylogeny of Biblidinae based on morphology and molecules (in collaboration with André V. L. Freitas)
• Specimens being sequenced
• Phylogeny of Heliconiinae based on morphology and molecules (in collaboration with Carla Penz, David Lees, Thomas Simonsen and Andrew V. Z. Brower)
• Final sequencing of specimens in progress
• Phylogeny of Cymothoe (in collaboration with Robin van Velzen and Freek Bakker)
• Specimens being acquired and sequenced
• Evolutionary history of butterflies in Ghana (in collaboration with Kwaku Aduse-Poku)
• Specimens being acquired and sequenced
• Phylogeny of Morphini, Brassolini and Amathusiini based on morphology and molecules (in collaboration with Carla Penz, Phil DeVries and André V. L. Freitas)
• Specimens being acquired and sequenced

Future planned projects include:

• Phylogeny of Charaxinae (in collaboration with Andrew V. Z. Brower)

We also collaborate with people working on other groups of Lepidoptera:

• Phylogeny of Noctuoidea (PhD project of Reza Zahiri)
• Phylogeny of Lepidoptera (Project of Lauri Kaila and Marko Mutanen)
• Phylogeny of Geometridae (Project of Toomas Tammaru and Kai Ruohomäki)
• Phylogeny of Choreutidae (Project of Jadranka Rota)
• Speciation in the genus Leptidea (Project of Magné Friberg and Christer Wiklund)