Peña Carlos, Wahlberg Niklas
Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
Biol Lett. 2008 Jun 23;4(3):274-8. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0062.
Satyrinae butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and grasses (Poaceae) are very diverse and distributed worldwide. Most Satyrinae use grasses as host plants, but the temporal scale of this tight association is not known. Here, we present a phylogenetic study of Satyrinae butterflies and related groups, based on 5.1 kilobases from six gene regions and 238 morphological characters for all major lineages in the 'satyrine clade'. Estimates of divergence times calibrated using a fossil from the Late Oligocene indicate that the species-rich tribe Satyrini diversified to its current 2200 species simultaneously with the expansion and radiation of grasses during the dramatic cooling and drying up of the Earth in the Oligocene. We suggest that the adaptive radiation of grass feeders in Satyrini has been facilitated by the ubiquitousness of grasses since 25Myr ago, which was triggered by a change in global climate.
眼蝶亚科蝴蝶（鳞翅目：蛱蝶科）和禾本科植物分布广泛，种类繁多。大多数眼蝶亚科蝴蝶以禾本科植物为寄主植物，但这种紧密关联的时间尺度尚不清楚。在此，我们基于“眼蝶类分支”所有主要谱系的六个基因区域的5.1千碱基和238个形态特征，对眼蝶亚科蝴蝶及相关类群进行了系统发育研究。利用渐新世晚期的一块化石校准的分歧时间估计表明，在渐新世地球急剧冷却和干涸期间，物种丰富的眼蝶族分化成其目前的2200个物种，与此同时禾本科植物也在扩张和辐射。我们认为，自2500万年前以来，全球气候的变化引发了禾本科植物的广泛分布，这促进了眼蝶族中以禾本科植物为食者的适应性辐射。
