Niklas Wahlberg

TL;DR: A genomic approach to finding new protein-coding genes for systematics in nonmodel taxa, which can be PCR amplified from standard, slightly degraded genomic DNA extracts is described.

TL;DR: It is concluded that resource diversity is correlated with species richness in the Nymphalidae and suggested a scenario based on recurring oscillations between host expansions – the incorporation of new plants into the repertoire – and specialization, as an important driving force behind the diversification of plant-feeding insects.

TL;DR: A rigorous and comprehensive analysis of lepidopteran affinities found Ditrysia to be a monophyletic taxon with the clade Tischerioidea + Palaephatoidea being the sister group of it and Butterflies were found to be more closely related to ‘microlepidopterans’ groups of moths rather than the clades Macrolepidoptera, where they have traditionally been placed.

TL;DR: This work presents the first well supported phylogenetic hypothesis for the butterflies and skippers based on a total-evidence analysis of both traditional morphological characters and new molecular characters from three gene regions (COI, EF-1α and wingless).

TL;DR: A new molecular phylogeny offers hope for a stable family level classification of the Noctuoidea (Lepidoptera) for the first time in more than a century.