Guantanamo blues: taking a closer look at Cyclargus (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) from Cuba

Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Exhibit Hall BC (Convention Center)
Deborah Matthews , University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Jacqueline Miller , University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Andrew Warren , University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
James Toomey , University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Roger Portell , University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Terry Lott , University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL
Nick Grishin , Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Lists of Cuban butterflies include but a single species of Cyclargus: C. ammon. To our surprise, recent Lepidoptera surveys of the US Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay turned up 3 specimens of C. thomasi along with 11 C. ammon, as confirmed by genitalic dissection. Examination of McGuire Center specimens curated as C. ammon revealed an additional 18 C. thomasi from the Guantanamo province. Morphological study of Cyclargus from Florida, the Bahamas, and West Indies confidently outlined variation and diagnostic characters of C. thomasi vs. C. ammon by wing patterns, male and female genitalia. However, CO1 DNA barcode sequences of Guantanamo C. thomasi and C. ammon were identical. Moreover, nearly 100 CO1 barcodes of Cyclargus across the range revealed less than 1% difference and poor correlation between CO1 haplotypes and species.  Being very closely related, these species are likely to hybridize, leading to introgression, possibly complicated by incomplete lineage sorting.

 

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