title: Inferring the provenance of an alien species with DNA barcodes: the neotropical butterfly Dryas iulia in Thailand.
abstract: The Neotropical butterfly Dryas iulia has been collected from several locations in Thailand and Malaysia since 2007, and has been observed breeding in the wild, using introduced Passiflora foetida as a larval host plant. The butterfly is bred by a butterfly house in Phuket, Thailand, for release at weddings and Buddhist ceremonies, and we hypothesized that this butterfly house was the source of wild, Thai individuals. We compared wing patterns and COI barcodes from two, wild Thai populations with individuals obtained from this butterfly house. All Thai individuals resemble the subspecies D. iulia modesta, and barcodes from wild and captive Thai specimens were identical. This unique, Thai barcode was not found in any of the 30 specimens sampled from the wild in the species' native range, but is most similar to specimens from Costa Rica, where many exporting butterfly farms are located. These data implicate the butterfly house as the source of Thailand's wild D. iulia populations, which are currently so widespread that eradication efforts are unlikely to be successful.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, United States of America; Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America; Biology Ph.D. Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Noah A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Burg
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ashman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pradhan
authors.affiliation: High School for Environmental Studies, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: High School for Environmental Studies, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Emely Z
authors.initials: EZ
authors.lastname: Morban
authors.affiliation: High School for Environmental Studies, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Erica W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Zhen
authors.affiliation: Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, Chatuchak, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Watana
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sakchoowong
authors.affiliation: Biology Ph.D. Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America; Biology Department, City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America; Entomology Section, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lohman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D044822:Biodiversity; D002080:Butterflies / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D058865:Introduced Species; D007814:Larva / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013785:Thailand