Using museum specimens to assess historical distribution and genetic diversity in an endangered butterfly
In: Animal BiologySearch for other papers by Emily V. Saarinen in
Current site
Google Scholar
3Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620, USA
Search for other papers by Jaret C. Daniels in
Current site
Google Scholar
The Miami blue butterfly, Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri, is a state-endangered taxon in Florida and a candidate for federal listing. This once common butterfly saw a dramatic decline in population number and abundance in the 1970s and 1980s, but significant collections of individuals prior to this decline are deposited in natural history museums. Using museum specimens, we quantified the genetic diversity in a historical population present in Key Largo, Florida in 1940, 1960, and 1980. Genetic diversity was consistently high within this historical population, but diversity was observed to decrease over the decades sampled. A comparison of historical diversity from the Key Largo population with the extant populations on Bahia Honda State Park (BHSP) and Key West National Wildlife Refuge (KWNWR) revealed differences in allelic frequencies, but only minor differences in the overall number of alleles. The historical distribution of butterflies throughout the Florida Keys further suggests a metapopulation structure. This structure involved partially-isolated populations of C. t. bethunebakeri that were loosely connected via gene flow and that underwent localized extinction and colonization events along the chain of suitable habitat in the Florida Keys. It appears that a “mini-metapopulation” currently exists on BHSP and KWNWR; structures that are similar to the historical metapopulation structure and distribution of populations on a larger scale. Knowledge of historical distribution helps to plan future reintroduction events with captive-bred butterflies. Additional populations of butterflies may represent undiscovered genetic diversity that, if appropriate, may be further incorporated into captive-breeding efforts.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Calhoun J., Slotten J., Salvato M. (2002) The rise and fall of tropical blues in Florida: Cyclargus ammon and Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri. Holarctic Lepidoptera, 7, 13-20.
-
Cannon P. (2007) A survey of the Miami blue butterfly Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri: November 26, 2006-July 30, 2007. Report submitted to Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, Big Pine Key, Florida.
-
Carroll S.P., Loye J. (2006) Invasion, colonization, and disturbance; historical ecology of the endangered Miami blue butterfly. J. Insect Cons., 10, 13-27.
-
Chapin S.F., Zavaleta E.S., Eviner V.T., Naylor R.L., Vitousek P.M., Reynolds H.L., Hooper D.U., Lavorel S., Sala O.E., Hobbie S.E., Mack M.C., Diaz S. (2000) Consequences of changing biodiversity. Nature, 405, 234-242.
-
Dinerstein E., McCracken G.F. (1990) Endangered greater one-horned rhinoceros carry high levels of genetic variation. Cons. Bio., 4, 417-422.
-
Excoffier L., Laval G. & Schneider S. 2005. Arlequin version 3.0: an integrated software package for population genetics data analysis. Evol. Bioinform. Online, 1, 47-50.
-
Fauvelot C., Cleary D.F.R., Menken S.B.J. (2006) Short-term impact of 1997/1998 ENSO-induced disturbance on abundance and genetic variation in a tropical butterfly. J. Hered., 97, 367-380.
-
Forbes W.T.M. (1941) The Lepidoptera of the Dry Tortugas. Psyche, 48, 147-148.
-
Frankel O.H., Soulé M.E. (1981) Conservation and Evolution. Cambridge University Press, UK.
-
FWC (2003) Management plan: Miami Blue Cyclargus (= Hemiargus) thomasi bethunebakeri. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. http://myfwc.com/docs/WildlifeHabitats/Miami_blue_management_plan.pdf
-
Gebremedhin B., Ficetola G.F., Naderi S., Rezaei H.-R., Maudet C., Rioux D., Luikart G., Flagstad Ø., Thuiller W., Taberlet P. (2009) Combining genetic and ecological data to assess the conservation status of the endangered Ethiopian walia ibex. Anim. Conserv., 12, 89-100.
-
Gilpin M.E., Soulé M.E. (1986) Minimum viable populations: processes of extinction. In: Soulé M.E. (Ed.) Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity, pp. 19-34. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.
-
Goldstein P.Z., DeSalle R. (2003) Calibrating phylogenetic species formation in a threatened insect using DNA from historical specimens. Mol. Ecol., 12, 1993-1998.
-
Groombridge J.J., Jones C.G., Bruford M.W., Nichols R.A. (2000) ‘Ghost’ alleles of the Mauritius kestrel. Nature, 403, 616.
-
Harper G.L., Maclean N., Goulson D. (2003) Microsatellite markers to assess the influence of population size, isolation and demographic change on the genetic structure of the UK butterfly Polyommatus bellargus. Mol. Ecol., 12, 3349-3357.
-
Harper G.L., Maclean N., Goulson D. (2006) Analysis of museum specimens suggests extreme genetic drift in the adonis blue butterfly (Polyommatus bellargus). Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 88, 447-452.
-
Hartl G.B., Hell P. (1994) Maintenance of high levels of allelic variation in spite of a severe bottleneck in population size: the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in the Western Carpathians. Biodiv. Conserv., 3, 546-554.
-
Hutchinson W.F., van Oosterhout C., Rogers S.I., Carvalho G.R. (2003) Temporal changes of archived samples indicate marked genetic changes in declining North Sea Cod (Gadus morhua). Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B., 270, 2125-2132.
-
IUCN (2008) IUCN state of the world’s species. http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/state_of_the_world_s_species_factsheet_en.pdf
-
Iudica C.A., Whitten W.M., Williams N.H. (2001) Small bones from dried mammal museum specimens as a reliable source of DNA. BioTechniques, 30, 732-736.
-
Keyghobadi N., Roland J., Strobeck C. (2002) Isolation of novel microsatellite loci in the Rocky Mountain Apollo butterfly Parnassius smintheus. Hereditas, 136, 247-250.
-
Kimball C.P. (1965) The Lepidoptera of Florida. An Annotated Checklist. Arthropods of Florida and Neighboring Land Areas, Vol. 1. Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida.
-
Kishore R., Hardy W.R., Anderson V.J., Sanchez N.A., Buoncristiani M.R. (2006) Optimization of DNA extraction from low-yield and degraded samples using the BioRobot® EZ1 and BioRobot® M48. J. Forensic Sci., 51, 1055-1061.
-
Leonard J.A. (2008) Ancient DNA applications for wildlife conservation. Mol. Ecol., 17, 4186-4196.
-
Mandrioli M., Borsatti F., Mola L. (2006) Factors affecting DNA preservation from museum-collected lepidopteran specimens. Entomol. Exp. Appl., 120, 239-244.
-
Minno M.C., Emmel T.C. (1993) Butterflies of the Florida Keys. Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, Florida.
-
Nei M. (1978) Estimation of average heterozygosity and genetic distance from a small number of individuals. Genetics, 89, 583-590.
-
Olle D. (2010) Who killed all the Miami blues? Amer. Butterflies, 18, 5-14.
-
Paetkau D., Waits L.P., Clarkson P.L., Craighead L., Strobeck C. (1997) An empirical evaluation of genetic distance statistics using microsatellite data from bear (Ursidae) populations. Genetics, 147, 1943-1957.
-
Peakall R., Smouse P. (2006) Genalex 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol. Ecol. Notes, 6, 288-295.
-
Rice W.R. (1988) Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution, 43, 223-225.
-
Ross J.D., Arndt A.D., Smith R.F.C., Johnson J.A., Bouzat J.L. (2006) Re-examination of the historical range of the greater prairie chicken using provenance data and DNA analysis of museum collections. Cons. Gen., 7, 735-750.
-
Ruffin J., Glassberg J. (2000) Miami blues still fly. Amer. Butterflies, 8, 28-29.
-
Saarinen E.V., Daniels J.C., Maruniak J.E. (2009) Development and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in the endangered Miami blue butterfly (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri). Mol. Ecol. Res., 9, 42-44.
-
Saarinen E.V., Austin J., Daniels J.C. (2010) Genetic estimates of contemporary effective population size in an endangered butterfly indicate a possible role for genetic compensation. Evol. App., 3, 28-39.
-
Sarhan A. (2006) Isolation and characterization of five microsatellite loci in the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia). Mol. Ecol. Notes, 6, 163-164.
-
Shepherd L.D., Lambert D.M. (2008) Ancient DNA and conservation: lessons learned from the endangered kiwi of New Zealand. Mol. Ecol., 17, 2174-2184.
-
Slatkin M. (1995) A measure of population subdivision based on microsatellite allele frequencies. Genetics, 139, 457-462.
-
Smith D.S., Miller L.D., Miller J.Y. (1994) The Butterflies of the West Indies and South Florida. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
-
Solecki W.D. (2001) South Florida – the role of global-to-local linkages in land use/land cover change in South Florida. Ecol. Econ., 37, 339-356.
-
Solecki W.D., Walker R.T. (2001) Transformation of the South Florida landscape. In: Indian National Science Academy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Growing Populations, Changing Landscapes – Studies from India, China, and the United States, pp. 237-273. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
-
van Oosterhout C., Hutchinson W.F., Wills D.P.M., Shipley P. (2004) Micro-Checker: software for identifying and correcting genotyping errors in microsatellite data. Mol. Ecol. Notes, 4, 535-538.
-
Watts P.C., Thompson D.J., Allen K.A., Kemp S.J. (2007) How useful is DNA extracted from the legs of archived insects for microsatellite-based population genetic analyses? J. Insect Cons., 11, 195-198.
-
Weir B.S., Cockerham C.C. (1984) Estimating F-statistics for the analysis of population structure. Evolution, 38, 1358-1370.
-
Winston J.E. (2007) Archives of a small planet: the significance of museum collections and museum-based research in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa, 1668, 47-54.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 756 | 107 | 29 |
| Full Text Views | 166 | 17 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 96 | 30 | 3 |
Using museum specimens to assess historical distribution and genetic diversity in an endangered butterfly
In: Animal BiologySearch for other papers by Emily V. Saarinen in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
3Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620, USA
Search for other papers by Jaret C. Daniels in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The Miami blue butterfly, Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri, is a state-endangered taxon in Florida and a candidate for federal listing. This once common butterfly saw a dramatic decline in population number and abundance in the 1970s and 1980s, but significant collections of individuals prior to this decline are deposited in natural history museums. Using museum specimens, we quantified the genetic diversity in a historical population present in Key Largo, Florida in 1940, 1960, and 1980. Genetic diversity was consistently high within this historical population, but diversity was observed to decrease over the decades sampled. A comparison of historical diversity from the Key Largo population with the extant populations on Bahia Honda State Park (BHSP) and Key West National Wildlife Refuge (KWNWR) revealed differences in allelic frequencies, but only minor differences in the overall number of alleles. The historical distribution of butterflies throughout the Florida Keys further suggests a metapopulation structure. This structure involved partially-isolated populations of C. t. bethunebakeri that were loosely connected via gene flow and that underwent localized extinction and colonization events along the chain of suitable habitat in the Florida Keys. It appears that a “mini-metapopulation” currently exists on BHSP and KWNWR; structures that are similar to the historical metapopulation structure and distribution of populations on a larger scale. Knowledge of historical distribution helps to plan future reintroduction events with captive-bred butterflies. Additional populations of butterflies may represent undiscovered genetic diversity that, if appropriate, may be further incorporated into captive-breeding efforts.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 756 | 107 | 29 |
| Full Text Views | 166 | 17 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 96 | 30 | 3 |