Phylogenetic evaluation of the taxonomic status of Papilio maackii and P. syfanius (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)

The taxonomic status of Papilio maackii and P. syfanius has long been disputed. We conducted a molecular phylogenetic study to evaluate the taxonomic status of P. maackii and P. syfanius. A total of twenty-four P. maackii individuals from six localities and sixteenP. syfanius individuals from two localities were analyzed. We sequenced the partial region of the CO-I gene (about 579bp) and partial CO-II gene sequence (about 655bp) of the two species. The Kimura-2-Parameter distances among P. maackii and P. syfanius ranged from 0 to 0.6%. Fifteen haplotypes were obtained based on the combined data set. The results strongly supported that all P. maackii individuals and all P. syfanius individuals formed a large clade, and could not be divided into separated clades. This research indicated that the two species have only very recently undergone speciation.