Recent efforts to catalogue global biodiversity using genetic techniques have uncovered a number of "cryptic" species within morphologically similar populations that had previously been identified as single species. Chlosyne lacinia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), with a range extending from the Southwest U.S. to South America, is one of the most phenotypically variable and broadly distributed butterfly species in the New World. We sampled populations of C. lacinia in two temperate locations (California and Arizona) and one tropical location (El Salvador) to determine if cryptic species were present at this scale (temperate vs. tropical). We examined mtDNA sequence variation in COI, COII, the intervening tRNA (Leucine-2), 16S, 12S and an additional intervening tRNA (Valine), accounting for approximately 20% of the mitochondrial genome (3479 bp). Among all C. lacinia individuals, sequence divergence did not exceed 0.0084 compared to a 0.06 estimated divergence between C. lacinia and congener C. leanira. We also found subclade structure which did not clearly correspond to geography or subspecific designation. Though the mitochondrial phylogeny suggests a complex evolutionary history and biogeography, we demonstrate that one C. lacinia species is distributed throughout North and Central America spanning a diverse set of temperate and tropical habitats. and Timothy C. Bonebrake, Ward B. Watt, Alejandro Perez, Carol L. Boggs.
During investigations of gill ectoparasites (Platyhelminthes) parasitising freshwater fish from Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama) and southeastern Mexico (Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas), the following dactylogyrid monogenoidean were found: Urocleidoides simonae sp. n. from Profundulus punctatus (Günther) (type host), Profundulus balsanus Ahl, Profundulus guatemalensis (Günther), Profundulus kreiseri Matamoros, Shaefer, Hernández et Chakrabarty, Profundulus labialis (Günther), Profundulus oaxacae (Meek), Profundulus sp. 1 and Profundulus sp. 2 (all Profundulidae); Urocleidoides vaginoclaustroides sp. n. from Pseudoxiphophorus bimaculata (Heckel) (type host) and Poeciliopsis retropinna (Regan) (both Poeciliidae); and Urocleidoides vaginoclaustrum Jogunoori, Kritsky et Venkatanarasaiah, 2004 from P. labialis, Profundulus portillorum Matamoros et Shaefer and Xiphophorus hellerii Heckel (Poeciliidae). Urocleidoides simonae sp. n. differs from all other congeneric species in having anchors with well-differentiated roots, curved elongate shaft and short point. Urocleidoides vaginoclaustroides sp. n. most closely resembles U. vaginoclaustrum, but differs from this species mainly in the shape of its anchors (i.e. evenly curved shaft and short point vs curved shaft and elongate point extending just past the tip of the superficial anchor root). The complexity of potential hosts for species of Urocleidoides and their effect on its distribution on profundulid and poeciliid fishes are briefly discussed., Edgar F. Mendoza-Franco, Juan Manuel Caspeta-Mandujano, Guillermo Salgado-Maldonado, Wilfredo Antonio Matamoros., and Obsahuje bibliografii