A group of scientists discovered a new species of diurnal butterflybaptized as “difficult young girl” (Melitaea nickname) and its distribution extends to almost the entire Iberian Peninsula, with the exception of some spots in the southwest and northeast. So far, new butterfly found All peninsular autonomous communities, with the exception of Asturias, Madrid and Murcia, “are found in absolutely all”.
A team led by scientists from the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a mixed center of CSIC, and the University of Pompeu Fabra (UPF), together with independent researchers from Andalusia and the Spanish Butterfly Conservation Society (Zerynthia), announced. this is the new kind.
This discovery was published in the journal Insect Systematics and Diversityand provides data on the distribution, genetics and ecology of new species unique to the Iberian Peninsula.
For Joan C. Hinojosa, lead author of the study and IBE researcher, the finding was a “surprise”, not only because it is extremely difficult to discover new butterfly species in such an explored geographical area, but also because the new species is present in almost all of the Iberian Peninsula, with the exception of some spots in the southwest and northeast. .
not noticed so far
This new butterfly had been overlooked until now because its external appearance is almost indistinguishable from other species«Iberian maiden» (melitaea phoebe), quite common and widely distributed in our Peninsula and Europe.
Again, The main feature that differentiates them is the color of the caterpillars’ heads when they reach the final stage of growth.: It is always orange in “hard-to-reach girl” and always black in “older girl”.
This fact caught the attention of Andalusian co-authors LuÃs Sánchez Mesa and Miguel Muñoz Sariot, as well as the head of the Zerynthia Society and the explorer of the species in the northern part of the peninsula, Yeray Monasterio León. The orange-headed caterpillars in Navarra realized that this might be something relevant.
In this way, samples were sent to the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and DNA studies were appreciated. “difficult teenage girl” is genetically very different from “older girl”.
Likewise, the scientific name of the new species, which dispersed from Provence to Central Asia, dates back to 4000 BC. melitaea ornata.
Evolution
Roger Vila, a researcher in the Butterfly Diversity and Evolution Lab at IBE, said: It is a new species that has evolved due to the geographic isolation of the Iberian Peninsula, a relatively common fact in these insects.
Observing that about twenty pairs of “sibling” species with a similar structure already exist, Vila observed that genetic techniques represent a paradigm shift in biodiversity research, allowing us to see how much we don’t know about most of the species in the world. our environment.
Environment department contact address:crisclimatica@prensaiberica.es
Source: Informacion
