Repeated Reversals of Host‐preference Evolution in a Specialist Insect Herbivore

A tree of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes was constructed to estimate the number of evolutionary changes of host-plant preference needed to account for variation among 24 populations of the butterfly Euphydryas editha. Using 17 restriction endonucleases, 22 mtDNA haplotypes were found among 24 populations of this butterfly species. We allowed for the possibility of haplotypes to acquire particular preferences either from evolutionary change at their local sites or from migration to populations where those preferences occurred. After we had taken these estimates of migration into account, a minimum of 10 evolutionary changes of host preference (reduced from 22) was needed to explain the pattern of use of five host-plant genera among these populations. Analysis of allozyme variation among a partially overlapping set of populations also suggested multiple host shifts. Although genetic variation of host preference is largely responsible for interpopulation variation of diet, repeated reversals of preference evolution have occurred. However, host preferences were not distributed randomly with respect to phylogeny, and some tendency toward evolutionary conservation of preference also was indicated. The haplotype of E. editha most closely related to the sister species, E. chalcedona, used a principal host of E. chalcedona. Our results suggest that host shifts occur frequently in E. editha, are a result of both migration and local evolution, and have not been associated with speciation in these insects.