New Alaskan Arctic Butterfly Species Hybridized 28,000 Years Ago

Summary: A new Alaskan Arctic butterfly species, miscatalogued for 60 years in museum and private collections, may be an Alaska native hybridized 28,000 years ago.

Tanana Arctic (Oeneis tanana): Florida Museum @FloridaMuseum via Twitter March 16, 2016

A new Alaskan Arctic butterfly species appears to be natively hybridized from two related species, according to a study appearing online in the Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera March 15, 2016.

One co-author each in Alaska, Russia, Slovakia, Texas, Washington and Wyoming and two in Florida base their findings upon specimens preserved in museum and private collections. All nine call the previously misidentified species the Tanana Arctic, Oeneis tanana, in honor of membership in the Arctic butterfly genus and residence along the Tanana. They deem Alaska’s first newly described butterfly species in 28 years rare Ice Age hybrids of Chryxus Arctics (Oeneis chryxus) and of White-veined Arctics (Oeneis bore). They emphasize that unglaciated Alaska was a “refuge where plants and animals waited out the last ice age and then moved eastward or southward from there.”

The study’s co-authors find that Tanana Arctics, whose Athabascan name means “trail river” in English, look enough like Chryxus Arctics to be misidentified 60 years ago.

Examination of Florida Museum of Natural History collections since 2010 and of University of Alaska specimens in 2015 guides leads author Andrew Warren through the differences. The new Alaskan Arctic butterfly species, whose white-specked undersides give their penny-colored wings frosted looks, has darker colors, larger female reproductive parts and larger mature measurements.

Vladimir Lukhtanov of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of St. Petersburg State University in Russia is responsible for sequencing the female Tanana Arctic-transmitted mitochondrial DNA. Subtle genetics join physical subtleties since, excluding a single base-pair substitution at site 300:G->A, Tanana Arctics share the same unique COI barcode sequences as White-veined Arctics.

The lack of field research and the limitations of preserved specimens keep the study’s co-authors from establishing Tanana Arctics as hybrids until their genome is sequenced.

Living specimens of the new Alaskan Arctic butterfly species live in the aspen and spruce forests of the Tanana and Yukon River Basin of central Alaska. Field research may reveal even wider geographic distributions, such as eastward into Yukon Territory, since Alaska, Canada, Russia and Siberia sustain other species of Arctic butterflies.

The study’s eight scientists note that Arctic butterfly species typically occupy niches in Arctic alpine, boreal and montane forest; grassland; rocky, sparsely vegetated and tundra habitats. They observe that the bodies of Tanana Arctics harbor glycerols, internal equivalents of antifreeze, to withstand the extreme temperatures and severe conditions in cold, harsh environments.

The Arctic forbs, grasses and sedges that grow amidst birches, black spruces, quaking aspens, white spruces and willows provide food for two-year-long larval stages as caterpillars.

The new Alaskan Arctic butterfly species qualifies as a typical cold weather lepidopteran since mature Tanana Arctics have short-lived adult stages, from late May to July. They remain “fairly sedentary and in response to a disturbance fly short distances, usually in straight lines, to settle again” except when courting, mating or nectaring. Numerous members of isolated colonies survive together “on the ground or perch on rocks, or on low vegetation, with wings folded over the back unless basking.”

Dr. Warren tells UF News writer Stephenie Livingston that “Wow, there are some changes happening!” if Tananas ever abandon homelands “where the permafrost is already melting.”

Chryxus Arctic butterfly, close lookalike of new species, Tanana Arctic butterfly (Oeneis tanana), near Skoki Creek, Banff National Park, Alberta; Chryxus Arctic butterfly in Banff National Park: dfaulder, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Tanana Arctic (Oeneis tanana): Florida Museum @FloridaMuseum via Twitter March 16, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/FloridaMuseum/status/710172324667006980

Chryxus Arctic butterfly (Oeneis chryxus): dfaulder, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chryxus_Arctic_(4861749841).jpg?uselang=fr

For further information:

Banchiri, Bamzi. 19 March 2016. “New Alaskan Butterfly: A Monitor for Climate Change?” The Christian Science Monitor > News > US.
Available @ http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-alaskan-butterfly-a-monitor-for-climate-change/ar-BBqG3RD?ocid=ansmsnnews11

Florida Museum @FloridaMuseum. 16 March 2016. "Alaska's first new butterfly species in decades may be an ancient hybrid." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/FloridaMuseum/status/710172324667006980

Hanson, Hilary. 17 March 2016. “This New Arctic Butterfly Species May Only Exist in Alaska.” Huffington Post > Edition: US > HuffPost Science.
Available @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tanana-arctic-new-butterfly-species-alaska_us_56eae681e4b03a640a69d0f3

Hazen, Shelley. 22 March 2016. “'Frosty' Looking Tanana Arctic Butterfly Is a Hybrid, and the Only One Native to Alaska.” Inquisitr > Science & Tech > Discoveries.
Available @ http://www.inquisitr.com/2914274/frosty-looking-tanana-arctic-butterfly-is-a-hybrid-and-the-only-one-native-to-alaska/

Howard, Brian Clark. 16 March 2016. “New Butterfly Discovered in Alaska for First Time in 28 Years.” National Geographic > Weird & Wild.
Available @ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160316-tanana-arctic-butterfly-alaska-hybridization-new-species-science/

“Is Alaska’s First New Butterfly Species in Decades an Ancient Hybrid?” Phys.Org > Biology > Plants & Animals > March 18, 2016.
Available @ http://phys.org/news/2016-03-alaska-butterfly-species-decades-ancient.html

Livingston, Stephenie. 16 March 2016. “Is Alaska’s First New Butterfly Species in Decades an Ancient Hybrid?” University of Florida > News > Science & Wellness.
Available @ http://news.ufl.edu/articles/2016/03/is-alaskas-first-new-butterfly-species-in-decades-an-ancient-hybrid.php

NewsBeat Social. March 18, 2016. "Butterfly expert identifies new species of Alaskan butterfly from mislabeled museum specimen." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MxbHF2ZvdY

Ranosa, Ted. 21 March 2016. “Meet Tanana Arctic, a Possible Ancient Hybrid Butterfly Discovered in Alaska: Why You Should Care.” Tech Times > Environment.
Available @ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/142731/20160321/meet-tanana-arctic-a-possible-ancient-hybrid-butterfly-discovered-in-alaska-why-you-should-care.htm

Sachdeva, Pooja. 21 March 2016. “Tanana Arctic Butterfly Can Provide Climate Change Warning.” The Hoops News > Science.
Available @ http://www.thehoopsnews.com/2016/03/21/12464/tanana-arctic-butterfly-can-provide-climate-change-warning/

Shukla, Vikas. 21 March 2016. “New Tanana Arctic Butterfly a Hybrid of Two Ancient Species.” ValueWalk > Science.
Available @ http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/03/tanana-arctic-butterfly-a-hybrid/

“Tanana Arctic: New Alaska Butterfly Species is First in 28 Years.” Canada Journal > Science > March 22, 2016.
Available @ http://canadajournal.net/science/tanana-arctic-new-alaska-butterfly-species-first-28-years-45054-2016/

Warren, Andrew D.; Nakahara, Shinichi; Lujktanov, Vladimir A.; Daly, Kathryn M.; Ferris, Clifford D.; Grishin, Nick V.; Cesanek, Martin; and Pelham, Jonathan P. 15 March 2016. “A New Species of Oeneis from Alaska, United States, with Notes on the Oeneis chryxus Complex (Lepdoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae).” The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 49: 1-20.
Available @ http://lepidopteraresearchfoundation.org/journals/49/JRL_49_1_20.pdf

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Available @ http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/tanana-arctic-butterfly-climate/2016/03/22/id/720252/