Phylogeny and evolution of Japanese papilionid butterflies inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences

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Mitochondrial ND5 gene was used for a phylogenetic analysis of Japanese and East Asian papilionid butterflies. The Papilionidae are monophyletic and their phylogenetic tree is consistent with classifications based on their morphological characters. The subgenus Achillides (genus : Papilio) are separated to two phylogenetic clusters, one of which consists of P.maackii, P.syfanius, P.krishna, P.arcturus, P.hopponis, P.paris and P.karna. the other of which consists of P.bianor, P.polyctor, P.chikae, P.hermeli P.dialis. Some species belonging to the different clusters have a similar wing pattern, which may indicate an example of parallel evolution.P.bianor is divided to four phylogenetic clusters. One is ssp. bianor and thrasymedes, another is ssp. okinawensis, another is ssp. amamiensis and ryukyuensis, and the other is ssp. dehaanii, tokaraensis and hachijonis. Base sequence differences among the four P.bianor groups are large enough to be able to regard them as different species, indicating that ssp. okinawensis, and ssp. amamiensis and ryukyuensis would be isolated when the Ryukyu Islands were separated from the Eurasian Continent. No sequence difference was found in P.bianor ssp. dehaanii inhabiting Korea, Tsushima Island, Japan Main Islands and Sakhalin and ssp. tokaraensis and ssp. hachijonis, indicating that they would spread recently to the Japan Archipelago from the Korean Peninsula (Glacial era). No sequence difference was found between P.polyctor and P.bianor, and between P.syfanius and P.maackii, suggesting that the pair may be an identical species although they are regarded as taxonomically different species.Parnassius stubendorfii and P.glacialis inhabiting the Japan Archipelago are phylogenetically distinct from those inhabiting the Eurasian Continent, suggesting that both species inhabiting Japan would be isolated when the Japan Archipelago was separated from the Eurasian Continent.