ORCID Profile
0000-0003-2790-8652
Current Organisations
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle: Paris, Île-de-France, FR
,
University of Guelph Biodiversity Institute of Ontario
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-05-2012
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 30-03-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.03.29.486224
Abstract: Wild silkmoths (Saturniidae) are one of the most emblematic and most studied families of moths. Yet, the absence of a robust phylogenetic framework based on a comprehensive taxonomic s ling impedes our understanding of their evolutionary history. We analyzed 1,024 ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and their flanking regions to infer the relationships among 338 species of Saturniidae representing all described subfamilies, tribes, and genera. We investigated systematic biases in genomic data and performed dating and historical biogeographic analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history of wild silkmoths in space and time. Using Gene Genealogy Interrogation, we showed that saturation of nucleotide sequence data blurred our understanding of early ergences and first biogeographic events. Our analyses support a Neotropical origin of saturniids, shortly after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event ( ca 64.0 [stem] - 52.0 [crown] Ma), and two independent colonization events of the Old World during the Eocene, presumably through the Bering Land Bridge. Early ergences strongly shaped the distribution of extant subfamilies as they showed very limited mobility across biogeographical regions, except for Saturniinae, a subfamily now present on all continents but Antarctica. Overall, our results provide a framework for in-depth investigations into the spatial and temporal dynamics of all saturniid lineages and for the integration of their evolutionary history into further global studies of bio ersity and conservation. Rather unexpectedly for a taxonomically well-known family such as Saturniidae, the proper alignment of taxonomic isions and ranks with our phylogenetic results leads us to propose substantial rearrangements of the family classification, including the description of one new subfamily and two new tribes.
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 29-07-2021
DOI: 10.3897/NEOBIOTA.67.58038
Abstract: Invasive species can have severe impacts on ecosystems, economies, and human health. Though the economic impacts of invasions provide important foundations for management and policy, up-to-date syntheses of these impacts are lacking. To produce the most comprehensive estimate of invasive species costs within North America (including the Greater Antilles) to date, we synthesized economic impact data from the recently published InvaCost database. Here, we report that invasions have cost the North American economy at least US$ 1.26 trillion between 1960 and 2017. Economic costs have climbed over recent decades, averaging US$ 2 billion per year in the early 1960s to over US$ 26 billion per year in the 2010s. Of the countries within North America, the United States (US) had the highest recorded costs, even after controlling for research effort within each country ($5.81 billion per cost source in the US). Of the taxa and habitats that could be classified in our database, invasive vertebrates were associated with the greatest costs, with terrestrial habitats incurring the highest monetary impacts. In particular, invasive species cumulatively (from 1960–2017) cost the agriculture and forestry sectors US$ 527.07 billion and US$ 34.93 billion, respectively. Reporting issues (e.g., data quality or taxonomic granularity) prevented us from synthesizing data from all available studies. Furthermore, very few of the known invasive species in North America had reported economic costs. Therefore, while the costs to the North American economy are massive, our US$ 1.26 trillion estimate is likely very conservative. Accordingly, expanded and more rigorous economic cost reports are necessary to provide more comprehensive invasion impact estimates, and then support data-based management decisions and actions towards species invasions.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 09-02-2022
Abstract: The regions of the Andes and Caribbean-Mesoamerica are both hypothesized to be the cradle for many Neotropical lineages, but few studies have fully investigated the dynamics and interactions between Neotropical bioregions. The New World hawkmoth genus Xylophanes is the most taxonomically erse genus in the Sphingidae, with the highest endemism and richness in the Andes and Caribbean-Mesoamerica. We integrated phylogenomic and DNA barcode data and generated the first time-calibrated tree for this genus, covering 93.8% of the species ersity. We used event-based likelihood ancestral area estimation and biogeographic stochastic mapping to examine the speciation and dispersal dynamics of Xylophanes across bioregions. We also used trait-dependent ersification models to compare speciation and extinction rates of lineages associated with different bioregions. Our results indicate that Xylophanes originated in Caribbean-Mesoamerica in the Late Miocene, and immediately erged into five major clades. The current species ersity and distribution of Xylophanes can be explained by two consecutive phases. In the first phase, the highest Xylophanes speciation and emigration rates occurred in the Caribbean-Mesoamerica, and the highest immigration rates occurred in the Andes, whereas in the second phase the highest immigration rates were found in Amazonia, and the Andes had the highest speciation and emigration rates.
Location: France
Location: Canada
No related grants have been discovered for Liliana Ballesteros-Mejia.