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Quaternary refugia in southwestern Iran: insights from two sympatric moth species (Insecta, Lepidoptera)

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Abstract

Alternating glacial and interglacial periods led to range shifts (contractions and expansions), persistence in distinct glacial refugia and extinction events in various temperate organisms. Today, the integrative analysis of molecular markers and spatial distribution models conducted for multiple taxa allows the detection of phylogeographical patterns, thus reconstructing major biogeographical events in their shared evolutionary history. In this study, the effects of past climate change on the evolutionary history of two sympatric moth species (Gnopharmia colchidaria s.l. and G. kasrunensis) and their host plants (Prunus scoparia and P. fenzliana) were inferred for the largely neglected biodiversity hot spot Iran. We complementarily analyzed the population structure of both moth species (187 specimens, based on COI) in congruence with batched species distribution models (SDMs) for all four taxa and for the times of the Last Glacial Maximum (21 ky BP), 6 ky BP and today. Coincidence of SDMs and the distribution of haplotype lineages indicated a shared refugium for the southwestern Zagros Mountains and potential species-specific refugial areas in the southern Caucasus and the Kope-Dagh Mountains. Both moth species experienced past population expansion.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Thomas Schmitt (Trier, Germany) for his advice on the preliminary steps of this project. Special thanks go to Morteza Djamali (France) for sharing his knowledge on the paleoecology and climatology of Iran. Paul Hebert (Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Guelph, Canada) and Axel Hausmann supported the main part of DNA sequencing in the framework of the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) project that is run by Genome Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The second part of DNA sequencing was provided by the ZMB (Center of Molecular Biodiversity Research, ZFMK, Bonn).

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  1. Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany

    Hossein Rajaei Sh, Dennis Rödder, Johannes Dambach & J. Wolfgang Wägele

  2. Department of Phylogeny and Systematics, Goethe University, Max-von-Laue Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany

    Alexander M. Weigand

  3. Senckenberg am Meer, Deutsches Zentrum für Marine Biodiversitätsforschung, Südstrand 44, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Michael J. Raupach

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  1. Hossein Rajaei Sh
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  2. Dennis Rödder
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Correspondence to Hossein Rajaei Sh.

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Rajaei Sh, H., Rödder, D., Weigand, A.M. et al. Quaternary refugia in southwestern Iran: insights from two sympatric moth species (Insecta, Lepidoptera). Org Divers Evol 13, 409–423 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-013-0126-6

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