@article {712, title = {A combined genetic-morphometric analysis unravels the complex biogeographical history of Polyommatus icarus and Polyommatus celina Common Blue butterflies}, journal = {Molecular Ecology}, volume = {20}, year = {2011}, chapter = {3921}, abstract = {

Widespread species have the potential to reveal large-scale biogeographical patterns, as
well as responses to environmental changes possibly unique to habitat generalists. This
study presents a continental-scale phylogeographical analysis of Polyommatus icarus,
one of the most common Palaearctic butterflies, and the morphologically and ecologically
similar Polyommatus celina, a recently discovered cryptic species. By combining data
from mitochondrial [cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI)] and nuclear [internal
transcribed spacer (ITS2)] molecular markers with geometric morphometrics, we
document a complex phylogeographical history for the two species. Despite morphological
similarities, the genetic divergence between these two species is high (more than
5\% at COI) and they are not sister species. For the first time, we show that P. celina
occurs not only in North Africa but also in Europe, where it inhabits several west
Mediterranean islands, as well as large parts of Iberia, where it occurs in parapatry with
P. icarus. The two species appear to completely exclude each other on islands, but we
provide morphological and molecular evidence that introgression occurred in the Iberian
Peninsula. We discovered strongly diverged lineages that seem to represent relict
populations produced by past range expansions and contractions: Crete and Iberian
isolates for P. icarus, Balearics\–Sardinia and Sicily\–Lipari for P. celina. This study
shows that a combined genetic-morphometric approach can shed light on cryptic
diversity while providing the necessary resolution to reconstruct a fine-scale phylogeographical
history of species at both spatial and temporal levels.

}, keywords = {cryptic species, geometric morphometrics, molecular markers, Phylogeography, Polyommatus celina, Polyommatus icarus}, doi = {doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05223.x}, author = {Vlad Dinca and Leonardo Dapporto and Roger Vila} } @article {687, title = {Dispersal, fragmentation, and isolation shape the phylogeography of the European lineages of Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) ripartii (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)}, journal = {Biological Journal of the Linnean Society}, volume = {109}, year = {2013}, chapter = {817}, abstract = {

Polyommatus ripartii is a biogeographically and taxonomically poorly understood species of butterfly with a
scattered distribution in Europe. Recently, it has been shown that this species includes several European endemic
and localized taxa (galloi, exuberans, agenjoi) that were previously considered species and even protected, a result
that poses further questions about the processes that led to its current distribution. We analysed mitochondrial
DNA and the morphology of P. ripartii specimens to study the phylogeography of European populations. Three
genetically differentiated but apparently synmorphic lineages occur in Europe that could be considered evolutionarily
significant units for conservation. Their strongly fragmented and counterintuitive distribution seems to be the
result of multiple range expansions and contractions along Pleistocene climatic oscillations. Remarkably, based on
the 79 specimens studied, these genetic lineages do not seem to extensively coexist in the distributional mosaic,
a phenomenon most evident in the Iberian Peninsula. One of the important gaps in the European distribution of
P. ripartii is reduced by the discovery of new Croatian populations, which also facilitate a better understanding of
the biogeography of the species.

}, keywords = {biogeography {\textendash} conservation {\textendash} distribution {\textendash} genetic lineages {\textendash} morphology {\textendash} postglacial expansion.}, author = {Vlad Dinca and Marten Runquist and Marten Nilsson and Roger Vila} }