Isozyme data and the taxonomy of checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas)

Abstract

The taxonomy of butterflies in the genus Euphydryas was investigated using allozyme frequency data from 19 presumptive loci. Six Euphydryas species and three species in the tribe Melitaeini (Chlosyne acastus, Chlosyne palla, and Melitaea phoebe) were included in the study. This set of species included at least one representative each of Higgins’ four proposed genera within Euphydryas. Dendrograms derived using UPGMA, neighbor-joining, distance Wagner, and maximum likelihood clustering methods were used to establish the similarity of the sampled taxa. The analyses do not support Higgins’ generic rearrangement.