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Updated Iberian distribution of Thecla betulae up to October 2021, including literature sources, online databases and fieldwork carried out during this study. In green, modelled distribution implemented in MaxEnt from 442 available presence points, under a resolution of 10km. Only a probability of occurrence above 50% is shown, darkest green shading representing areas with the highest probability of occurrence according to bioclimatic data.
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The Brown Hairstreak ( Thecla betulae L.) is one of the least observed butterflies of the Palaearctic region, even though its distribution spans from Portugal in the west, to Russia and Korea in the far east. Adults are arboreal and seldom descend to ground level. As a result, this species is mostly monitored via the detection of eggs on the food p...
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The butterfly checklist of Bongal Gaon village in Assam revealed a total of
171 species which included 20 species listed as protected under the various
schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, enacted in India. Fieldwork
for butterfly collection took seven years. The checklist comprises six families,
22 subfamilies, and 105 genera. It i...
Citations
... Species in the family are widely distributed worldwide, with high diversity in morphology and ecology (Artem'eva, 2007;Schar et al., 2018). Lycaenidae species mainly inhabit mountains and forests, and some are adapted to high-altitude environments (Hughes, 2000;Balint et al., 2022;Marabuto et al., 2022). Most lycaenid species (about 75%) are associated with ants, forming a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship (i.e., myrmecophily) (Pierce et al., 2002;Nemet et al., 2016;Riva et al., 2017;Kubik and Schorr, 2018), and this relationship may be related to the geographical distribution (Schmidt and Rice, 2002;Kaminski, 2008). ...
Harsh environments (e.g., hypoxia and cold temperatures) of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau have a substantial influence on adaptive evolution in various species. Some species in Lycaenidae, a large and widely distributed family of butterflies, are adapted to the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. Here, we sequenced four mitogenomes of two lycaenid species in the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau and performed a detailed comparative mitogenomic analysis including nine other lycaenid mitogenomes (nine species) to explore the molecular basis of high-altitude adaptation. Based on mitogenomic data, Bayesian inference, and maximum likelihood methods, we recovered a lycaenid phylogeny of [Curetinae + (Aphnaeinae + (Lycaeninae + (Theclinae + Polyommatinae)))]. The gene content, gene arrangement, base composition, codon usage, and transfer RNA genes (sequence and structure) were highly conserved within Lycaenidae. TrnS1 not only lacked the dihydrouridine arm but also showed anticodon and copy number diversity. The ratios of non-synonymous substitutions to synonymous substitutions of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) were less than 1.0, indicating that all PCGs evolved under purifying selection. However, signals of positive selection were detected in cox1 in the two Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau lycaenid species, indicating that this gene may be associated with high-altitude adaptation. Three large non-coding regions, i.e., rrnS-trnM (control region), trnQ-nad2, and trnS2-nad1, were found in the mitogenomes of all lycaenid species. Conserved motifs in three non-coding regions (trnE-trnF, trnS1-trnE, and trnP-nad6) and long sequences in two non-coding regions (nad6-cob and cob-trnS2) were detected in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau lycaenid species, suggesting that these non-coding regions were involved in high-altitude adaptation. In addition to the characterization of Lycaenidae mitogenomes, this study highlights the importance of both PCGs and non-coding regions in high-altitude adaptation.
... Its limiting factor is mostly the presence of suitable hostplants. Larvae are leaf-miners at first and then live on a silken web under leaves of Prunus spinosa (Agassiz, 1987), but also the closely related P. domestica (Schütze, 1931), probably sharing distribution with Thecla betulae (Linnaeus, 1758) in Portugal (Marabuto et al., 2022). This enigmatic species was recently described from England where specimens were first but repeatedly collected in London from 2003 to 2007 (Agassiz, 2007). ...
... Its limiting factor is mostly the presence of suitable hostplants. Larvae are leaf-miners at first and then live on a silken web under leaves of Prunus spinosa (Agassiz, 1987), but also the closely related P. domestica (Schütze, 1931), probably sharing distribution with Thecla betulae (Linnaeus, 1758) in Portugal (Marabuto et al., 2022). Agassiz, 2007 This enigmatic species was recently described from England where specimens were first but repeatedly collected in London from 2003 to 2007 (Agassiz, 2007). ...
Far from complete, the Portuguese Lepidoptera faunal list is still unsettled as many new species are added
(and deleted) year after year. Here, 18 hitherto unknown species are added to that list. Whilst most of these
discoveries are probably just the result of an intensification of field-work in formerly less known areas of the country,
e.g. Xanthorhoe designata (Hufnagel, 1767), Xestia sexstrigata (Haworth, 1809), Apamea epomidion (Haworth, 1809),
etc., or the use of techniques such as DNA barcoding (Spialia rosae Hernández-Roldán, Dapporto, Dincă, Vicente & Vila,
2016), others probably result from range expansions by allochthonous species with an invasive potential, such as the case
of Epiphyas postvittana (Walker, 1863) and likely Prays peregrina Agassiz, 2007.
