Phylogeography of the Delias Hyparete Species Group (Lepidoptera: Pieridae): Complex Historical Dispersals Into And Out of Wallacea

The unique and highly endemic fauna of Wallacea has been extensively examined; however, the diversification of asingle animal lineage in Wallacea has not yet been studied in detail. The Delias hyparete (Linnaeus) species groupis distributed in the Oriental and Australian regions as well as throughout Wallacea (i.e. North Maluku, SouthMaluku, Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda), with the highest species diversity occurring in Wallacea. The present studyreconstructed the phylogeny and estimated the between- and within-species divergence of the D. hyparete groupusing two genes: mitochondrial NADH-dependent dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5) and nuclear elongation factor1 alpha (EF1-α). Two out of five clades were associated with Lesser Sunda, and the remaining three clades wereassociated with North Maluku, South Maluku and Sulawesi, respectively. Ancestral area analyses and moleculardating suggested five colonization events into Wallacea at various times with the Australian and Oriental regionsinferred as the geographical origins; Lesser Sunda may have been colonized twice. Two range expansion events fromLesser Sunda to Greater Sunda in the recent past and an older dispersal passing through Wallacea towards theOriental region have also been inferred. The species diversity of this butterfly group in Wallacea appears to havedeveloped due to non-sympatric speciation events. Complex historical dispersals into and out of Wallacea inferred inthe D. hyparete group reinforce the view that animals move across Wallace’s and Lydekker’s Lines more frequentlythan classical assumptions, and these complex dispersals may have largely contributed to the high biodiversity and endemism evident in Wallacea. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Vol. 121. 2017. P: 576–591.