Wiped out by an earthquake? The 'extinct' Taiwanese swallowtail butterfly (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae) was morphologically and genetically distinct.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39565827.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0310318 and PMC identifier 11578470.
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Abstract
For the first time, we obtained for the first time a COI DNA barcode from museum specimens of the Old World swallowtail butterfly endemic to Taiwan, Papilio machaon ssp. sylvina, that has disappeared since the devastating Jiji earthquake in 1999 that shook Central Taiwan. We demonstrate that this population was not only phenotypically distinct, but also had a unique mitochondrial haplotype among all other Holarctic populations of P. machaon. The life history of P. m. sylvina from rearing experiments carried out in the 1990s is illustrated and discussed.
Medical subject headings
- Butterflies
- Earthquakes