New Complex of Cryptic Species Discovered in Genus Biblis (Papilionoidea: Nymphalidae: Biblidinae) in Mexico

• Published in: Neotropical entomology 2022-08, Vol.51 (4), p.557-569
• Main Authors: Álvarez-García, Hugo, Machkour-M’Rabet, Salima, Martínez, Armando Luis, Pozo, Carmen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Entomology; Life Sciences; Morphology and Physiology; Systematics
• ISSN: 1678-8052; 1678-8052
• DOI: 10.1007/s13744-022-00969-4

Our research focuses on demonstrating the existence of cryptic species named under Biblis aganisa Boisduval. We used COI sequences to delimit Biblis species for Mexico using species delimitation analyses and examined phylogenetic relationships with sequences from Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, USA, and Guana Island using a Bayesian inference tree. We performed a discriminant analysis with quantitative traits using female and male wing and genitalia, and a tree of maximum parsimony based on 39 qualitative characters of wings, head, and male genitalia. The results were congruent in the three analyses. Three groups were formed based on DNA, ECO 01 + DHJ02, ECO 02 + DHJ01, and ECO 03. The characters that contributed over 50% separation were for wings: wing length, anal margin length, and distance from the band to the outer margin; for male genitalia, angle of the integument, uncus, and the length of the hypandrium, while for females, it was the angle of the anteapophysis and the length of the abdomen. For the analysis of qualitative characters, a tree of maximum parsimony was obtained where 20 characters were informative. We confirmed the existence of three cryptic Biblis species in Mexico, two not yet described, and one corresponding to B. aganisa (ECO 02), which is sympatric in Oaxaca and Sinaloa (ECO 03) and in the Yucatan Peninsula (ECO 01).