Insect Science (2012) 19, 239-246

Yuya Fukano, Toshiyuki Satoh, Tadao Hirota, Yudai Nishide and Yoshiaki Obara (2012)
Geographic expansion of the cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) and the evolution of highly UV-reflecting females
Insect Science 19 (2), 239-246
Abstract: Reflection of ultraviolet (UV) light by the wings of the female Eurasian cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae, shows a large geographic variation. The wings of the female of the European subspecies, P. rapae rapae, reflect little UV light, while butterflies of the Asian subspecies, P. rapae crucivora, may reflect it strongly or at only intermediate levels. The geographic region where P. rapae originated remains to be determined. Moreover, it is not clear if females with wings that reflect little UV light are ancestral to females with wings that reflect UV strongly or vice versa. In the present study, we aimed to determine the geographic origin and ancestral UV pattern of cabbage butterflies through mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence analysis and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis. The results of these investigations suggest that P. rapae is of European origin and that it has expanded its distribution eastward to Asia. It follows that the ancestral subspecies is the type with UV-absorbing wings. Lower nucleotide diversities and haplotype network patterns of mtDNA derived from East Asian populations suggest that population expansion from Europe to East Asia probably occurred fairly recently and at a rapid rate.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Pieris rapae