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Geographic and climatic differences between islands and continents may affect the evolution of their biota, and promote divergent selection in species distributed in both landscapes. To assess spatial-genetic structure, we genotyped 18 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) loci and sequenced two mtDNA markers (ND5 and COI) and one nuclear marker (EF1α) in two subspecies of the butterfly Parantica sita. Compared with nuclear markers, mtDNA had a stronger signal of population structure. Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) suggested that a continuous-gene-flow model best described the data. According to this model, the two subspecies diverged approximately 23.1 kya, with 10 times more introgression from the continental (ssp. sita) to the insular subspecies (ssp. niphonica) than vice versa. Ecological niche modelling was performed to predict the paleo- and current potential distributions and elucidate the geohistorical process, which revealed a northeastern, insular origin. Winter precipitation and annual temperature range were the main determinants of the subspecies distributions. Maximum-likelihood population-effects models showed that the population differentiation of the insular and continental subspecies was primarily affected by environmental resistance and local climate. Sex-biased migration capacity and long-term precipitation-driven divergence between the continental and insular lineages shaped the current genetic structure of P. sita. Evidence from the nuclear markers confirmed intersubspecific gene flow despite adaptive divergence between the subspecies. These results imply that the continental subspecies is still capable of returning to the island and introgressing with the insular subspecies.

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera. Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin ~100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event. We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics. Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants., Funding came from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) GoLife ‘ButterflyNet’ collaborative grant (DEB-1541500, 1541557, 1541560) to A.Y.K., R.P.G., D.J.L. and N.E.P. Specimen collection and preservation was funded by NSF DBI-1349345, 1601369, DEB-1557007 and IOS-1920895 (A.Y.K.), NSF DEB-1120380 (D.J.L.), grants 9285-13 and WW-227R-17 from the National Geographic Society (D.J.L.), NSF DBI-1256742 (A.Y.K. and K.R.W.), NSF DEB-0639861 (K.R.W.) and NSF SES-0750480, DEB-0447244 and DEB-9615760 (N.E.P.). M.E. was supported by the Research Council of Norway (no. 204308) and the Hintelmann Scientific Award for Zoological Systematics. F.L.C. was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (project GAIA, no. 851188). M.P.B. was supported by the Swedish Research Council (IPG no. 2020‐06422). R.V. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant PID2019-107078GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. G.T. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grants PID2020-117739GA-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and RYC2018-025335-I). V.L. was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 19-14-00202) and by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (grant 075-15-2021-1069). M.Y. was supported by MEXT KAKENHI no. 19916010 and JSPS KAKENHI grants 13010131, 23570111, 26440207, 17K07528 and 21H02215. A.B.B.M., H.P.R. and N.O.M. were supported by CNPQ grants proc 563332/2010-7 and 304273/2014-7., Main Results and discussion Methods Data availability Code availability References Acknowledgements Author information Ethics declarations Peer review Additional information Supplementary information Rights and permissions About this article

Temperature is thought to be a key variable explaining global patterns of species richness. However, to investigate this relationship carefully, it is necessary to study clades with broad geographic ranges that are comprised of species inhabiting diverse biomes with well- characterized species ranges. In the present study, we investigate the link between temperature and diversification in the butterfly family Pieridae (sulfurs and whites) by combining Next Generation sequences and published molecular data with fine-grained distribution information. After building the most comprehensive phylogeny of the group, with almost 600 species and all higher taxa (subfamilies, tribes and subtribes), we found strong support for the following relationships within the family: Dismorphiinae + (Coliadinae + (Pseudopontiinae + Pierinae)). With a curated distribution dataset of over 800,000 occurrences, we conducted multiple comparative phylogenetic analyses that provided strong evidence that species in environments with more stable daily temperatures or with cooler maximum temperatures in the warm seasons have higher diversification rates. We also found a positive correlation between speciation and extinction with paleotemperature: as global temperature decreased through geological time, so did diversification rates. Although many studies demonstrate higher diversity in the tropics, we have been able to identify specific climate variables associated with changes in diversification, while also inferring the most robust and well sampled phylogenomic framework for Pieridae to date.

While one subspecies of chestnut tiger butterfly (Parantica sita, Lepitoptera: Nymphalidae) undertakes seasonal migration between Taiwan and Japan, it is still unknown whether the nominate subspecies, P. s. sita, migrates seasonally in southwest China. To understand the potential migration of P. s. sita, it is necessary to investigate the genetic differentiation among populations. In our study, we developed 18 novel microsatellite markers from the transcriptome using next-generation sequencing methods. These polymorphic markers were tested on 89 individuals from 4 populations of P. sita. The allele numbers ranged from 2 to 19. The average polymorphism information content values in each population ranged from 0.34 to 0.40. The observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity of each locus in each population ranged from 0.043 to 0.870 and 0.043 to 0.833, respectively. These informative microsatellite markers would be helpful for discovering the facts of P. sita long-distance migration in China.

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have diversified via coevolution with plants and in response to dispersals following key geological events. These hypotheses have been poorly tested at the macroevolutionary scale because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets on global distributions and larval hosts of butterflies are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,000 butterfly species to construct a new, phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera and aggregated global distribution records and larval host datasets. We found that butterflies likely originated in what is now the Americas, ∼100 Ma, shortly before the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, then crossed Beringia and diversified in the Paleotropics. The ancestor of modern butterflies likely fed on Fabaceae, and most extant families were present before the K/Pg extinction. The majority of butterfly dispersals occurred from the tropics (especially the Neotropics) to temperate zones, largely supporting a “cradle” pattern of diversification. Surprisingly, host breadth changes and shifts to novel host plants had only modest impacts.

A new species of clearwing moth, Synanthedon suhua sp. nov., is described from Taiwan in this article. Adults and genitalia of both sexes are illustrated, DNA barcodes provided, and potential damage to Quercus longinux (Fagaceae) discussed.

The immature stages, morphology, and systematic position of Bombyx incomposita (van Eecke, 1929) are reported. The morphology of larva was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, and the phylogeny was inferred using six genes (COI, CAD, EF-1α, GAPDH, RpS5, and wgl). The molecular phylogeny strongly supported that B. incomposita is sister to B. huttoni Westwood, 1847. The divergence of the COI barcode, phylogenetic reconstruction, and difference in immature stages support the current classification, in which the species incomposita belongs to the genus Bombyx. We give illustrations of male and female genitalia and briefly discuss the utility of the chaetotaxy of the first instar larvae on taxonomy of silkmoths. The SV group bears six setae in B. mandarina, but eight in B. incomposita. The L1 bears three setae in Rotunda, but just single seta in Bombyx.

Issuing a going‐concern opinion is a difficult and complex task for auditors. The auditors have to take into account different critical factors in order to make the right decision based on information obtained from the auditing process. This study adopts the so‐called “random forest” approach (based on the ensemble method) to assist auditors in making such a decision. To investigate the corresponding effect of the proposed approach, we conduct a series of experiments and a performance comparison. The results show that the random forest method outperforms the baseline methods in terms of the accuracy rate, ROC area, kappa value, type II error, precision, and recall rate. The proposed approach is proven to be more accurate and stable than previous methods.

Larvae of the cosmopolitan family Limacodidae, commonly known as “slug” caterpillars, are well known because of the widespread occurrence of spines with urticating properties, a morpho‐chemical adaptive trait that has been demonstrated to protect the larvae from natural enemies. However, while most species are armed with rows of spines (“nettle” caterpillars), slug caterpillars are morphologically diverse with some species lacking spines and thus are nonstinging. It has been demonstrated that the evolution of spines in slug caterpillars may have a single origin and that this trait is possibly derived from nonstinging slug caterpillars, but these conclusions were based on limited sampling of mainly New World taxa; thus, the evolution of spines and other traits within the family remains unresolved. Here, we analyze morphological variation in slug caterpillars within an evolutionary framework to determine character evolution of spines with samples from Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. The phylogeny of the Limacodidae was reconstructed based on a multigene dataset comprising five molecular markers (5.6 Kbp: COI, 28S, 18S, EF‐1α, and wingless) representing 45 species from 40 genera and eight outgroups. Based on this phylogeny, we infer that limacodids evolved from a common ancestor in which the larval type possessed spines, and then slug caterpillars without spines evolved independently multiple times in different continents. While larvae with spines are well adapted to avoiding generalist predators, our results imply that larvae without spines may be suited to different ecological niches. Systematic relationships of our dataset indicate six major lineages, several of which have not previously been identified.

Chrysozephyrus mushaellus paolongkoui, ssp. nov. is described and illustrated from Hainan island of southern China. This new subspecies possesses diagnosable characters different from previously recognized subspecies of C. mushaellus in wing marking and genitalia of both sexes. It utilizes Lithocarpus litseifolius (Fagaceae) as the larval hostplant.

The genus Epsteinius Lin, Braby & Hsu gen. nov. is established to accommodate a new, diminutive species of limacodid moth, E. translucidus Lin, sp. nov., from central Taiwan. Although the new species is the sister taxon to Microleon Butler, 1885 according to molecular phylogenetic data, it differs fundamentally from that genus in adult morphology, wing color pattern, male and female genitalia, and larval morphology. Larvae of E. translucidus Lin, sp. nov. represent an interesting case in which crypsis is based on transparency through its body color, resting behavior, and feeding pattern.

Fifteen holotypes of Asian Hesperiidae taxa described by Shu-iti Murayama were examined, and their taxonomic status is discussed. We confirm that five are valid names while the rest are synonyms as indicated partially by previous authors. Valid species-level names are Aeromachus matudai (Murayama), Aeromachus bandaishanus Murayama & Shimonoya, Coladenia pinsbukana (Shimonoya & Murayama), and Sebastonyma suthepiana Murayama & Kimura. Valid subspecies-level name is Ochlodes yuchingkina Murayama & Shimonoya. In order to settle the taxonomic status of Pedesta masuriensis cuneomaculata Murayama, masuriensis and tali were studied morphologically and molecularly. As a result, we consider that masuriensis and tali are two different species and treat cuneomaculata as a junior subjective synonym of tali.

Based upon both morphological and gene barcode evidence, the population of Spindasis syama in Taiwan is described as Spindasis syama lamuae, ssp. nov., and the taxon negrita Felder, 1862 is revised as a species endemic to the Philippines (stat. rev.).