Molecular phylogeny of the Doxocopa genus butterflies (Nymphalidae: Apaturinae)

• Grant number: 23/12675-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2023
• End date: July 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: André Victor Lucci Freitas
• Grantee: Luca de Bernardin Stadoan
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Doxocopa is a butterfly genus (Nymphalidae, Apaturinae) which is native to the new world and has wide distribution, ranging from Mexico to Northern Argentina, including some caribbean islands. There are disagreements on its number of species, which is considered to be either 18, 16 or 15, depending on the author. A large sum of its species are putative mimics of species of other Nymphalidae genera, such as Prepona, Archaeoprepona (Charaxinae), Adelpha (Limenitidinae) and Diaethria (Biblidinae), whose mimetic rings could be related to escape mimicry, a phenomenon which has been theorized decades ago, but only recently has gained empirical support. Doxocopa also is a group of interest for beogeographical studies, since it and Asterocampa, the only other member of Apaturinae found in the New World, do not form a monophyletic group. However, despite this potential as a model group for researchers, a phylogenetic hypothesis (either, molecular or morphological) is not available for the group. Therefore, the present project aims to obtain a well supported molecular phylogeny for Doxocopa, using as markers the mitochondrial gene COI and the nuclear genes RpS5 and GAPDH, as well as a molecular delimitation of the species, with the goal of contributing towards the solving of the systematics of Apaturinae.