BioProject

the coverage of species and specimens from different localities, coupled

with genome-scale phylogenetic analysis and complemented by phenotypic

considerations, suggests a number of changes to the names of butterflies,

mostly those recorded from the United States and Canada. More...

the coverage of species and specimens from different localities, coupled

with genome-scale phylogenetic analysis and complemented by phenotypic

considerations, suggests a number of changes to the names of butterflies,

mostly those recorded from the United States and Canada. Here, we present

evidence to support these changes. The changes are intended to make

butterfly classification more internally consistent at the genus, subgenus

and species levels. I.e., considering all available evidence, we attempt

to assign similar taxonomic ranks to the clades of comparable genetic

divergence, which on average is correlated with the age of phylogenetic

groups estimated from trees. For species, we use criteria devised by

genomic analysis of the genetic divergence across suture zones and

comparison of sympatric populations of closely related species. As a

result, we resurrect 4 genera and 1 subgenus from subgeneric status or

synonymy, change the rank of 8 currently used genera to subgenus,

synonymize 7 genus-group names, summarize evidence to support 19 taxa as

species instead of subspecies and 1 taxon as subspecies instead of

species, along with a number of additional changes. Less...