James S. Miller - US grants

Members of the Dioptinae, a tropical subgroup of the Notodontidae or "Prominent moths," exhibit many unique features. First, dioptines are the only prominents with brightly-colored wing patterns, and whose members fly in the day rather than at night. Second, the caterpillars of many dioptines feed on toxic plants such as "passion vine" and "pipevine." In contrast, the larvae of other prominents feed on trees, most of which do not contain toxins. Recent work has shown that dioptines are highly specialized notodontids. Parallels can therefore be drawn between the Dioptinae and the butterflies, which are also thought to have evolved from a drab, nocturnal, moth-like ancestor. The major goal of this proposal is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Dioptinae based on comparative morphology of adult and larval stages. The dioptine phylogeny will then serve as a framework for a new classification, and will also be used to examine two questions: First, when did toxic plant-feeding evolve in the Dioptinae? Second, when did day-flying behavior evolve?

The large butterfly family Nymphalidae has been fundamentally important to diverse research fields in biology for more than a century. However, efforts to elucidate the group's evolutionary history using data from morphology have met with frustration; the consensus of available morphological phylogenies yields an almost total lack of resolution. This project will examine cladistic relationships in the Nymphalidae through character analysis of DNA sequences taken from independent mitochondrial and nuclear gene regions. The survey of taxa will include representatives of all nymphalid tribes (in 72 genera). This, combined with the use of multiple genetic markers, is expected to provide resolution not available from previous morphological or molecular studies. The phylogenetic results will serve as a framework for examining well-known evolutionary hypotheses including mimicry, herbivore- hostplant coevolution, and the evolution of unpalatability. %%% The butterfly family Nymphalidae contains some of the best-known species in the insect world, including the Monarch Butterfly, our national insect, and such conspicuous members of the tropical fauna as the Passion Flower butterflies (Heliconius) and the beautiful Morpho butterflies. Forms such as the Morpho are currently the focus of intense conservation research as part of urgent efforts to save the earth's biodiversity. This project will sequence DNA molecules from representative butterfly species in the family Nymphalidae and use the molecular data obtained to produce a phylogeny or description of relationships among those species. This phylogeny will then allow researchers to address other questions or theories about such things as mimicry and hostplant associations of these insects.

catalogs; plants; classification; systematic biology;