Butterflies have been of great interest to naturalists for centuries, and the study of butterflies has been an integral part of ecology and evolution ever since Darwin proposed his theory of natural selection in 1859. There are > 18 000 butterfly species worldwide, showing great diversity in morphological traits and ecological niches. Compared with butterfly diversity, however, patterns of genome size variation in butterflies remain poorly understood, especially in a phylogenetic context. Here, we sequenced and assembled the mitogenomes of 68 butterflies and measured the genome sizes (C‐values) of 67 of them. We also assembled 10 mitogenomes using reads from GenBank. Among the assembled 78 mitogenomes, those from 59 species, 23 genera and one subfamily are reported for the first time. Combining with published data of mitogenomes and genome size, we explored the patterns in genome size variation for 106 butterfly species in a phylogenetic context based on analyses of mitogenomes from 264 species covering six families. Our results show that the genome size of butterflies has a 6.4‐fold variation ranging from 0.203 pg (199 Mb) (Nymphalidae: Heliconius xanthocles) to 1.287 pg (1253 Mb) (Papilionidae: Parnassius orleans). Within families, the largest variation was found in Papilionidae (5.9‐fold: 0.22–1.29 pg), followed by Nymphalidae (4.8‐fold: 0.2–0.95 pg), Pieridae (4.4‐fold: 0.22–0.97 pg), Hesperiidae (2.2‐fold: 0.3–0.66 pg), Lycaenidae (2.6‐fold: 0.39–1.02 pg) and Rioidinidae (1.8‐fold: 0.48–0.87 pg). Our data also suggest that butterflies have an ancestral genome size of c. 0.5 pg, and some ancestral genome size increase or decrease events along different subfamilies or tribes produce the diversity of genome size variation in diverse butterflies. Our data provide novel insights into patterns of genome size variation in butterflies and are an important reference for future genome sequencing programmes.

中文翻译：

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蝴蝶（昆虫纲、鳞翅目、蝶形纲）的基因组大小变异：彻底的系统发育比较

几个世纪以来，博物学家一直对蝴蝶产生了浓厚的兴趣，自 1859 年达尔文提出自然选择理论以来，对蝴蝶的研究一直是生态学和进化的一个组成部分。全世界有超过 18 000 种蝴蝶，显示出巨大的多样性。形态特征和生态位。然而，与蝴蝶多样性相比，蝴蝶的基因组大小变异模式仍然知之甚少，尤其是在系统发育背景下。在这里，我们对 68 只蝴蝶的有丝分裂基因组进行了测序和组装，并测量了其中 67 只蝴蝶的基因组大小（C 值）。我们还使用来自 GenBank 的读数组装了 10 个有丝分裂基因组。在组装的78个有丝分裂基因组中，首次报道了来自59个物种、23个属和一个亚科的基因组。结合已发表的有丝分裂基因组和基因组大小数据，我们基于对 6 个科的 264 个物种的有丝分裂基因组的分析，在系统发育背景下探索了 106 个蝴蝶物种的基因组大小变异模式。我们的结果表明，蝴蝶的基因组大小有 6.4 倍的变异，范围从 0.203 pg (199 Mb)（蛱蝶科：Heliconius xanthocles）到 1.287 pg（1253 Mb）（凤蝶科：Parnassius orleans）。在家庭中，最大的变异发生在蝶科（5.9 倍：0.22-1.29 pg），其次是蛱蝶科（4.8 倍：0.2-0.95 pg）、蝶科（4.4 倍：0.22-0.97 pg）、桔梗科（2.22-0.97 pg）倍：0.3-0.66 pg）、狼蛛科（2.6 倍：0.39-1.02 pg）和鸢尾科（1.8 倍：0.48-0.87 pg）。我们的数据还表明，蝴蝶的祖先基因组大小为 c。0.5 页，不同亚科或部落的一些祖先基因组大小增加或减少的事件在不同的蝴蝶中产生了基因组大小变化的多样性。我们的数据提供了对蝴蝶基因组大小变异模式的新见解，并且是未来基因组测序计划的重要参考。