The Chinese species of skipper butterflies in the tribe Tagiadini Mabille, 1878 (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae): insights from phylogeny, hostplants, and biogeography

The butterfly tribe Tagiadini Mabille, 1878 is a large group of skippers. Although there are a few species which are limited in distribution to some countries in the Oriental or Afrotropical region, the main radiation of the tribe is in China. In the present study, we constructed the first detailed molecular phylogeny of the Chinese species in the tribe based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes, and investigated its history of larval hostplants association. Maximum likelihood phylogeny strongly supports for monophyly of Tagiadini from China and confirms the most recent accepted species in the tribe. The controversial position of some species are presented and discussed. The systematic relationship of larval hostplants and Tagiadini species match well in phylogeny tree. They show conservatism in evolution of larval hostplant use. Moreover, the divergence time estimates and ancestral-area reconstructions provide a detailed description about the historical biogeography of the Tagiadini from China. The Chinese species of the tribe very likely originated from a combined ancestral area between Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains and Southern China region in the late Ecocene and expanded to the other regions. A dispersal-vicariance analysis suggests that dispersal events have played essential roles in the promotion of diversification in this tribe and distribution of extant species, and geological and climatic changes have been important factors driving current distribution patterns.