Maniola

Abstract: Maniola butterflies undergo summer dormancy in dry and hot habitats and deposit their eggs only in early autumn when conditions become more favourable for their offspring. Female individuals of this genus are therefore relatively long-lived. For long-lived butterflies adult diet is of particular importance. We tested if added amino acids in nectar substitute fed to the butterflies affected timing of oviposition, fecundity and longevity. A hundred Maniola females were sampled from Mediterranean and Central European populations and made to oviposit under controlled laboratory conditions. Forty individuals were offered sucrose solution with additional amino acids while the remainder were fed with plain sucrose solution. We found that egg-laying strategies and longevity depended on geographic provenance rather than diet. Supplementary amino acids in adult diet did neither prolong lifetime nor increase total egg production. Maniola females from Sardinia started to lay eggs at least 20 days later relative to Central European M. jurtina and lived three times as long. Mediterranean individuals had on average twice the length of reproductive period and lifespan relative to Central European ones, and individuals of Pannonian origin lived longer than Alpine butterflies. Average total egg numbers were 200-350 eggs per female and did not differ significantly between populations. The fact that oviposition strat egy could not be altered through diet may indicate that for univoltine butterflies, like Maniola, diet-quality at the adult stage is less important than endogenous factors, or factors the butterflies are exposed to in an earlier developmental stage than the imago. Oviposition strategy closely matched the climatic conditions that prevail in the geographic regions where these butterflies fly.

Abstract: Butterflies of the genus Maniola are known for their large morphological variation, at the inter- as well as intraspecific level. Given the overlap in wing-patterns, habitat selection, and geographic distribution of various Maniola species, genitalia morphology is sometimes the only possibility to tell specimen apart. In this paper we describe diagnostic characters to distinguish different Maniola species by means of their genitalia. Included is also the first detailed description and illustration of the genitalia apparatus of the Sardinian endemic Maniola nurag. Further, we describe two Sardinian individuals with intermediate characteristics between Maniola nurag and Maniola jurtina, and propose that they are hybrids. Further, we shortly discuss the justification of the species status for the island endemics Maniola chia and Maniola cypricola.

Abstract: Phylogenetic relationships of European Maniola butterflies are reconstructed using molecular sequences from two regions of the mitochondrial DNA, cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and cytochrome b (Cytb). A total of 988 base pairs (486 for Cytb, and 502 for COI) were aligned for 15 individuals of Maniola and an outgroup species. The phylogenetic tree obtained through Bayesian inference analysis of the combined data sets shows evidence that the island endemic M. chia is indistinguishable from M. jurtina on the basis of the mtDNA genes studied. Net nucleotide divergence between M. jurtina and M. chia is 0.4%, but 2% between the M. jurtina and the M. nurag clade. A phenetically distinct entity of individuals from Sardinia appears to be a hybrid between M. nurag and M. jurtina. The southern and northern European ecotypes of M. jurtina, which differ in the summer aestiva- tion period of the southern type, are not structured genetically at the level of coding mtDNA genes. Divergence time between M. nurag and M. jurtina was estimated to be 1.1 to 1.2 million years. Speciation most likely took place in the early Pleistocene as a con- sequence of the isolation of Sardinia, when the sea reflooded the Mediterranean basin after the Messinian crisis (about 5 million years ago).

Abstract: The distribution of a number of esterase variants have been studied in samples of Maniola jurtina from the Isles of Scilly. The results are compared with the data on spot distributions of samples of the butterfly taken from the same sites. Various points of similarity are seen between the patterns of variation shown by esterase and spotting polymorphisms. Thus, samples from within large islands tend to be more homogeneous than those from small islands, and discontinuities in spotting are reflected in discontinuities in the frequencies of the esterase morphs. These results are consonant with the conclusions of Ford and his co-workers with respect to the adaptive nature of the appearance of Scillonian populations of Maniola .