Normally, new species will arise as offshoots of existing ones. The branches of the evolutionary tree do not typically merge. However, it seems that the Lycaeides Melissa and Lycaeides idas – genetically distinct butterfly species - produce offsprings that are able to breed with each other and produce further generations.A new butterfly species that lives high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of the western US has turned out to be a rare creature indeed: it arose through the merging of two distinct species. It is one of very few hybrid species that can successfully breed.
Lycaeides Melissa and Lycaeides idas – the genetically distinct butterfly species that initially gave rise to the new hybrids – do not regularly mate. But Zachariah Gompert at Texas State University in San Marcos, US, and colleagues found that when they do mate, they produce offspring that are able to breed with each other and produce further generations.
It is an unusual finding. Normally, new species will arise as offshoots of existing ones. The branches of the evolutionary tree do not typically merge.
The new species of butterfly, which is yet to be named, possesses a mosaic genome that is a mixture of its two parental genomes yet which is evolutionarily "younger" than either, Gompert says. What is more, this offspring cannot reproduce with either of its parent species, he adds.
Link & Image: NewScientist
Tags: Butterflies | Hybrid Species | Lycaeides Melissa | Lycaeides Idas
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