Molecular Characterization and Phylogeny of Heliconiinae Butterflies

Heliconiinae is one subfamily of Nymphalidae, has played a key role in understanding evolutionary biology and ecology and it would be difficult to point a group of Neotropical butterflies that have contributed more to our knowledge of the biological processes in the tropics. The derived members of the tribe have undergone rapid speciation and divergence, while also exhibiting impressive mimetic convergence in wing patterns. Despite several recent important efforts to elucidate the higher level relationships of butterflies, there is still only fragmentary knowledge about patterns of relationships among lineages within the subfamily, one of the most diverse groups of butterflies and has been the focus of several recent phylogenetic studies. Although many studies on morphological, ecological and molecular attributes of several species of Heliconiinae are available, very little is known about the species of the Oriental Zoogeographic region especially from the north-east India.