DNA barcoding unravels contrasting evolutionary history of two widespread Asian tiger moth species during the Late Pleistocene.

Populations of widespread pest insects in tropical areas are characterized by a complex evolutionary history, with overlapping natural and human-mediated dispersal events, sudden expansions, and bottlenecks. Here, we provide biogeographic reconstructions for two widespread pest species in the tiger moth genus Creatonotos (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) based on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. The Asian Creatonotos transiens reveals shallow genetic divergence between distant populations that does not support its current intraspecific systematics with several local subspecies.

Multi-locus fossil-calibrated phylogeny, biogeography and a subgeneric revision of the Margaritiferidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionoida).

The taxonomy and biogeographic history of the bivalve family Margaritiferidae are controversial because previous molecular studies did not provide a well-resolved phylogenetic framework for these enigmatic freshwater mussels that have extensive but disjunct distribution in North America, Eurasia and North Africa. In this study, we present a new, fossil-calibrated phylogenetic hypothesis based on five molecular markers (∼4kb of total length) for ten species. Our results indicate that all recent margaritiferids are in the single genus, Margaritifera Schumacher, 1816.

Taxonomy and distribution of freshwater pearl mussels (Unionoida: Margaritiferidae) of the Russian Far East.

The freshwater pearl mussel family Margaritiferidae includes 13 extant species, which are all listed by IUCN as endangered or vulnerable taxa. In this study, an extensive spatial sampling of Margaritifera spp. across the Russian Far East (Amur Basin, Kamchatka Peninsula, Kurile Archipelago and Sakhalin Island) was conducted for a revision of their taxonomy and distribution ranges.