Zhang Jing, Cong Qian, Shen Jinhui, Grishin Nick V
Departments of Biophysics and Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75390-8816, USA.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75390-9050, USA.
Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2017;2(2):598-600. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2017.1372701. Epub 2017 Sep 4.
Giant-Skipper butterflies from the genus (family Hesperiidae) are unusual as their caterpillars feed inside leaves. Relationships among taxa and their names (i.e., if they are species, subspecies, or synonyms) are poorly understood due to phenotypic similarity. DNA sequences are promising to clarify the taxonomic questions, but it is challenging to sequence name-bearing types that are usually old specimens with poorly preserved DNA. Using next generation sequencing, we assembled mitochondrial genomes of four group holotype specimens collected more than 55 years ago and housed pinned and dry in the American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY). We compared the holotype mitogenomes to those we obtained from fresh specimens and the sister species . All but mitogenomes were highly similar to each other (more than 99% identity), suggesting that the four names , , and proposed by H. A. Freeman in 1964 may not refer to species-level taxa. The mitogenomes grouped eastern populations ( and ) together and apart from the western populations (nominal , and ). Mexican A. differs by about 2.5% (about 5% in the COI barcode region) from , and is likely to be a distinct species.
巨弄蝶属（弄蝶科）的巨型弄蝶很特别，因为它们的幼虫在叶片内部取食。由于表型相似，该类群各分类单元之间的关系及其名称（即它们是物种、亚种还是同义词）尚不清楚。DNA序列有望澄清分类学问题，但对通常是DNA保存不佳的古老标本的具名模式标本进行测序具有挑战性。利用新一代测序技术，我们组装了55多年前采集的、固定干燥保存在美国自然历史博物馆（纽约，纽约）的4个巨弄蝶类群模式标本的线粒体基因组。我们将模式标本的线粒体基因组与从新鲜巨弄蝶标本以及其近缘物种中获得的线粒体基因组进行了比较。除了一个线粒体基因组外，其他所有线粒体基因组彼此高度相似（同一性超过99%），这表明H. A. 弗里曼于1964年提出的4个名称，即[具体名称1]、[具体名称2]、[具体名称3]和[具体名称4]可能并非指物种水平的分类单元。线粒体基因组将东部种群（[种群1名称]和[种群2名称]）聚在一起，与西部种群（标称的[种群3名称]、[种群4名称]和[种群5名称]）分开。墨西哥的[物种名称]与[比较物种名称]的差异约为2.5%（在细胞色素氧化酶亚基I条形码区域约为5%），很可能是一个独特的物种。
