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Evolutionary history of Neotropical butterflies of the infratribe Neosatyriti based on target enrichment (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Satyrinae, Satyrini)

Tomasz Pyrcz, Oscar Mahecha-J , Dorota Lachowska-Cierlik, Pierre Boyer, André Freitas, Klaudia Florczyk, Christer Fahraeus, José Cerdeña, Ezequiel Núñez-Bustos, Marianne Espeland

Abstract

The infratribe Neosatyriti is a section of the entirely Neotropical subtribe Pronophil-ina, accounting for 57 species distributed from southern Patagonia to the Andes of northern Peru, and along the Atlantic coast, with the highest diversity in central Chile. They are found in two main types of habitats, i.e. puna, pampas, and subant-arctic grasslands, and Valdivian forests and Chilean matorral, from sea level to nearly 5000 m a.s.l. We propose a phylogenetic hypothesis of the infratribe based on molecular data obtained by target enrichment (TE) of 621 nuclear loci, totaling 248,373 base pairs, from 53 species of this infratribe and 12 outgroups. Our analysis confirms that Neosatyriti is monophyletic with full support. Based on these results, we propose eight new combinations and two status reinstatements. Molecular data are congruent with morphological characters except for Homoeonympha which appears to be paraphyletic, thus almost all the genera described originally by L. Herrera, K. Hayward, and W. Heimlich in the Twentieth century based only on morphological characters are confirmed as valid, except for Haywardella which is synonymized with Pampasatyrus. The Neosatyriti diverged from other Pronophilina some 23 Mya, and split into two major lineages some 20 Mya. Our reconstructions do not indicate clearly a single area of origin, rather a multisource origin, but they suggest the Neosatyriti originated in the lowlands, and that their ancestral plants were non-bambusoid grasses. Major divergence of the infratribe started some 12-11 Mya when it split into the “Argyrophorus clade” (9 genera), the “Pampasatyrus clade” (4 genera), and “Neosatyrus clade” (5 genera). The next main radiation took place some 7-5 Mya with the switch to bamboo host plants and the colonization of Valdivian forests. The final dispersal of the tribe was associated with the colonization of Mata Atlantica some 6-5 Mya, and high Andean puna in Peru in the early Pleistocene.

IS24038  Accepted 06 February 2025

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