| Abstrakt: |
Simple Summary: The genus Colias Fabricius, 1807 is a taxonomically challenging group of butterflies. Many Colias taxa display a high level of intraspecific variation in wing pattern and are weakly differentiated with respect to genitalia structure; therefore, a conclusion on their status as a distinct species, subspecies or local form can be controversial. In such cases, it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive analysis based on various phylogenetic and biogeographical approaches and a large-scale sampling dataset in order to resolve existing taxonomic and nomenclatural problems. In the present study, we focused on two enigmatic Colias taxa of unclear taxonomic status, Colias mongola Alphéraky, 1897 and Colias tamerlana Staudinger, 1897, restricted in distribution to western Mongolia, northwestern China and the south Siberian part of Russia. Here, we conducted a DNA barcode-based analysis that revealed complicate genetic pattern with several differentiated haplotypes clustered in four distinct haplogroups. In addition, we found a strong correlation between a specific mitochondrial haplogroup and Wolbachia infection, suggesting that Wolbachia endosymbionts may have played an essential role in the biology and diversification of the taxa in question and the genus Colias as a whole. The genus Colias Fabricius, 1807 includes numerous taxa and forms with uncertain status and taxonomic position. Among such taxa are Colias mongola Alphéraky, 1897 and Colias tamerlana Staudinger, 1897, interpreted in the literature either as conspecific forms, as subspecies of different but morphologically somewhat similar Colias species or as distinct species-level taxa. Based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers, we reconstructed a phylogeographic pattern of the taxa in question. We recover and include in our analysis DNA barcodes of the century-old type specimens, the lectotype of C. tamerlana deposited in the Natural History Museum (Museum für Naturkunde), Berlin, Germany (ZMHU) and the paralectotype of C. tamerlana and the lectotype of C. mongola deposited in the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia (ZISP). Our analysis grouped all specimens within four (HP_I–HP_IV) deeply divergent but geographically poorly structured clades which did not support nonconspecifity of C. mongola–C. tamerlana. We also show that all studied females of the widely distributed haplogroup HP_II were infected with a single Wolbachia strain belonging to the supergroup B, while the males of this haplogroup, as well as all other investigated specimens of both sexes, were not infected. Our data highlight the relevance of large-scale sampling dataset analysis and the need for testing for Wolbachia infection to avoid erroneous phylogenetic reconstructions and species misidentification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
