butterfly-plant coevolution

[Patrick Foley]

Dear list,

For those of us who can handle Evolution, (in this case Janz, N. and S.
Nylin 1998. Butterflies and plants: a phylogenetic study. Evolution
52:486-502), what do you think about this update of the Ehrlich and
Raven 1964 problem?

In particular:

1) Janz and Nylin piece together a phylogeny of the butterflies, often
to the genus level. Any specific problems?

2) Janz and Nylin reconstruct the ancestral host plant as perhaps
Fabaceae or at least a Rosid. (This point was made by Scott 1986 also).
What about all those primitive Papilionids that eat primitive
Angiosperms?

3) Why isn't there a Butterfly book like Mabberly's The Plant Book,
listing Butterfly genera and their distribution world wide. Or some kind
of world-wide catalog of species? Is someone working on this?

Patrick Foley
patfoley at csus.edu


 
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