Historical and contemporary factors generate unique butterfly communities on islands

• DOI: 10.1038/srep28828
• Publication Date: 2016-06-29T10:29:22Z
• Authors: Raluca Vodă; Leonardo Dapporto; Vlad Dincă; Tim G. Shreeve; Mourad Khaldi; Ghania Barech; Khellaf Rebbas; Paul Sammut; Stefano Scalercio; Paul D. N. Hebert; Roger Vila
• Keywords: Nestedness

The mechanisms shaping island biotas are not yet well understood mostly because of a lack studies comparing eco-evolutionary fingerprints over entire taxonomic groups. Here, we linked community structure (richness, frequency and nestedness) genetic differentiation (based on mitochondrial DNA) in order to compare insular butterfly communities occurring key intercontinental area the Mediterranean (Italy-Sicily-Maghreb). We found that characteristics were influenced by combination contemporary historical factors, among latter, connection during Pleistocene had an important impact. showed species can be divided into two groups with radically different properties: widespread taxa high dispersal capacity, nested pattern occurrence, displayed little structure, while rare mainly characterized low dispersal, turnover genetically differentiated populations. These results offer unprecedented view distinctive main processes determining them each studied highlight importance assessing phylogeographic value populations for conservation.