*Justification for status of Trogonoptera?*
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 57(1), 2003, 17-24
MOLECULAR SYSTEMATICS OF BIRDWING BUTTERFLIES (PAPILIONIDAE) INFERRED FROM MITOCHONDRIAL ND5 GENE
KlYOTARO KONDO, TSUTOMU SHINKAWA
Department of Liberal Arts, The University of the Air, 2-11 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba, Japan 261-8586
AND
HlROTAKA MATSUKA
Nature photographer, 4-7-17 3F Tsurumaki, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 154-0016
ABSTRACT. Birdwing butterflies including three genera, Trogonoptera,
Troides and Omithoptera, were subjected to molecular systematic analysis
using sequences of the mitochondrial gene ND5. All three genera descend
from a common ancestor and were monophyletic. Trogonoptera might have
emerged from an ancestral species perhaps in the Miocene, from which
Troides and Omithoptera were also originated. Omithoptera was further
split in two subclusters, one totally corresponding to the subgenus
Schoenbergia which lacks male sex marks in the forewing. The other
subcluster includes species having sex marks. Green O. priamus, orange
O. croesus, and blue O. urvillianus are regarded as an example of
intraspecific variety of O. priamus by some authors, but they were
totally different phylogenetically. Trogonoptera is limited to the
Sundaland, but Troides is distributed across the Wallace line. It may be
that Troides arose in Sundaland, but Omithoptera probably arose in old
Wallacea and migrated eastwards producing the various species we see
today.
