Tropical montane nymphalids in Mexico: DNA barcodes reveal greater diversity

Materials and methods: DNA sequences obtained for the Barcode of Life library in the All Lepidoptera Campaign project Nymphalidae of Central Mexico were analyzed as a test of species limits and to explore possible phylogenetic groupings in the Preponini tribe. Using specimens in the National Insect Collection of the Instituto de Biologia of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 78 specimens were assayed for cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1.Results: Disregarding the missing data, there were 458 conserved sites, 200 variable sites and 187 parsimony-informative sites. The neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood analyses indicate that none of the three genera of Preponini as currently circumscribed are reciprocally monophyletic. As per species limits, high levels of barcode variation in the Prepona deiphile complex suggest the existence of at least two new endemic species to Mexico. The divergent taxa were escalantiana from the Tuxtlas region in Veracruz, and ibarra from Sierra Madre del Sur in the Pacif...