Template:Did you know nominations/Dirini

Dirini

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Table Mountain Beauty (Aeropetes tulbaghia)

... that the relationship between the Dirini (Aeropetes tulbaghia pictured) and its closest relative has been described by researchers as "odd"?

Source: "The only member of the genus Mantaria, Mantaria hercyna (= maculata), is confirmed to be the sister taxon to the Dirini. This is odd because the species is Neotropical, and it is estimated to have diverged from the Dirini at least 40 Ma, when South America was several thousand kilometres off the southern African coast" Price, Ben W.; Villet, Martin H.; Walton, Shaun M.; Barker, Nigel P. (April 2011). "Using molecules and morphology to infer the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the Dirini (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), a tribe of butterflies endemic to Southern Africa". Systematic Entomology. 36 (2): 300–316. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00560.x. Retrieved 29 December 2024.

ALT1: ... that the African Dirini (Aeropetes tulbaghia pictured) diverged from its closest relative when South America was thousands of kilometres away from the African coast? Source: Same as above
ALT2: ... that its closest relative of the African Dirini (Aeropetes tulbaghia pictured) is from South America? Source: Same as above
ALT3: ... that all but one member of the Dirini (Aeropetes tulbaghia pictured) is found in South Africa and Lesotho? Source: "Amongst the African satyrine butterflies, the tribe Dirini Verity is distinctive for its remarkable degree of endemism. All 28 nominal species (Table 1) occur only in South Africa or Lesotho (Fig. 1), except one that extends into eastern Zimbabwe, even though the tribe is at least 25 million years old" Price, Ben W.; Villet, Martin H.; Walton, Shaun M.; Barker, Nigel P. (April 2011). "Using molecules and morphology to infer the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the Dirini (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae), a tribe of butterflies endemic to Southern Africa". Systematic Entomology. 36 (2): 300–316. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00560.x. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Sher Machado
Comment: Thank you in advance to the reviewer for their time and hard work! I have three re-wordings of the same hook for ALT0-2, but if there is an alternative wording, I would be more than happy to hear it through! As a note: the source says "sister taxon" but I've used the more approachable wording "closest relative." The key point is that this entirely Southern African group's closest relative is from South America, and the divergence was when South America was quite far away from Africa when this happened.

Created by Ornithoptera (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 50 past nominations.

Ornithoptera (talk) 06:29, 9 January 2025 (UTC).