@article {715, title = {Africa goes Europe: The complete phylogeography of the marbled white butterfly species complex Melanargia galathea/M. lachesis (Lepidoptera: Satyridae)}, journal = {Organisms, Diversity \& Evolution}, volume = {8}, year = {2008}, chapter = {121}, abstract = {

Climatic oscillations influence the distribution of species in time. Thermophilic species survived the ice ages in
refugia around the Mediterranean. Northern Africa is one of the possibly important refugia. In this study we test the
genetic differentiation between northern African and European populations, using the marbled white butterfly species
complex, Melanargia galathea/M. lachesis, as a model. We studied 18 allozyme loci in 876 individuals from 23
populations representing a major part of Europe (northern Spain to Romania) and the western part of northern Africa
(Atlas Mountains). The African populations resemble the European ones in allelic richness; their genetic diversity is
higher than in Europe. Cluster analysis discriminated five European genetic groups: M. lachesis, a western European
lineage, and three eastern European lineages. However, the African samples did not form a separate cluster within this
phenogram, but clustered randomly within the Balkan/southeastern European groups. The genetic differentiation
among the African populations (FST 8.8\%) was higher than that within any of the European lineages (FST 2.6\–5.5\%).
The high genetic diversity and the relatively strong differentiation of the four African populations sampled in a
comparatively limited area of the Atlas Mountains indicate that the most probable origin of M. galathea is northern
Africa, with its sibling species, M. lachesis, evolving in parallel in Iberia. Most probably, M. galathea colonised Europe
first during the Eem interglacial, some 130 ky ago. Since M. lachesis must have existed on the Iberian peninsula during
that period already, M. galathea should have reached Europe via Italy. The genetic differentiation to distinct groups in
Europe most probably evolved during the following Wu\¨ rm glacial period.

}, keywords = {Molecular biogeography; Northern Africa; Genetic diversity; Range expansion; Eem interglacial; Wu{\textasciidieresis} rm glaciati}, doi = {doi:10.1016/j.ode.2007.04.002}, author = {Jan Christian Habel and Marc Meyer and Abdelhamid El Mousadik and Thomas Schmitt} } @article {711, title = {Genetic differentiation of the marbled white butterfly, Melanargia galathea , accounts for glacial distribution patterns and postglacial range expansion in southeastern Europe}, journal = {Molecular Ecology}, volume = {15}, year = {2006}, chapter = {1889}, abstract = {

Isolation of Mediterranean species in the southern European peninsulas during the cold
glacial phases often resulted in differentiation of several genetic lineages confined to the
respective peninsulas. However, whilst there is good genetic evidence for multiple refugia
in Iberia, there are only limited data available for the Balkans. Therefore, we wish to examine
the hypothesis of a strong genetic structuring within southeastern Europe for the existence
of multiple Balkan differentiation centres and/or several leading edges. As a model we use
the marbled white butterfly,
Melanargia galathea
. We studied 18 allozyme loci of 564 individuals
from 16 populations distributed over a large part of southeastern Europe. The single
populations showed moderately high genetic diversity and no northward decline of genetic
diversity was detected. The overall genetic differentiation between populations was considerable
(FST 7.0\%). Cluster analysis discriminated three genetic groups: (i) a western flank
in the former Yugoslavia, parts of eastern Austria and Hungary; (ii) an eastern flank with
populations from Bulgaria and Romania (south of the southern Carpathians and eastern
Carpathians); and (iii) the eastern Carpathian Basin. Hierarchical variance analysis distributed
53\% of the variance among populations between these three groups. One sample from the
Greek\–Bulgarian border clustered within the eastern flank, but showed some tendency
towards the eastern Carpathian Basin populations. Two populations from Carinthia clustered
together with the eastern Carpathian Basin ones and a population from Styria showed an
intermediate genetic composition between the three groups. Most probably, the eastern and
the western flank groups are due to postglacial range expansion from the northeastern and
the northwestern edges of the glacial differentiation centre (so-called leading edges). The
eastern Carpathian Basin group may have resulted from postglacial expansion from northern
Greece through valley systems of the central Balkan peninsula, maybe even expanding
westwards north of the Balkan mountains reaching some parts of eastern Austria (e.g. Carinthia).
Therefore, the Balkanic refugium of
M. galathea
may or may not have been continuous
along the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, but must have been strongly genetically structured.

}, keywords = {allozyme electrophoresis, genetic lineages, leading edge, Nymphalidae, Phylogeography, postglacial range expansion, Satyrinae, W{\"u}rm ice age}, doi = {doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02900.x}, author = {Thomas Schmitt and Jan Christian Habel and Marco Zimmermann and Paul Muller} }