The mega-diversity of herbivorous insects is attributed to their co-evolutionary associations with plants. Despite abundant studies on insect-plant interactions, we do not know whether host-plant shifts have impacted both genomic adaptation and species diversification over geological times. We show that the antagonistic insect-plant interaction between swallowtail butterflies and the highly toxic birthworts began 55 million years ago in Beringia, followed by several major ancient host-plant shifts. This evolutionary framework provides a valuable opportunity for repeated tests of genomic signatures of macroevolutionary changes and estimation of diversification rates across their phylogeny. We find that host-plant shifts in butterflies are associated with both genome-wide adaptive molecular evolution (more genes under positive selection) and repeated bursts of speciation rates, contributing to an increase in global diversification through time. Our study links ecological changes, genome-wide adaptations and macroevolutionary consequences, lending support to the importance of ecological interactions as evolutionary drivers over long time periods.

The previously recognised closely related species Graphium (Pazala) mandarinus (Oberthiir, 1879) and G. (P.) sichuanica (Koiwaya, 1993) are shown to comprise seven species as a result of both molecular and morphological analysis. Molecular dating analysis is also performed on the mandarinus group in order to investigate the divergence time of the taxa. Two taxa, G. (P.) garhwalica (Katayama, 1988) stat. nov. and G. (P)paphus (de Niceville, 1886) stat. nov., are raised from subspecific to specific status; G. (P.) hoeneanus Cotton & Hu nom. nov., stat. rev. is separated from sichuanica at species level; and two previously unrecognised new species, G. (P.) daiyuanae Hu, Zhang & Cotton sp. nov. and G. (P.) confucius Hu, Duan & Cotton sp. nov. are described from Vietnam and China respectively, the latter being sympatric with nominate G. (P.) mandarinus. The identity of the lectotype of G. (P.) mandarinus is confirmed and a lectotype is designated for the taxon Papilio Glycerion Gray, 1831. A new subspecies of G. (P.) mandarinus is described from western Yunnan and northern Myanmar, G. (P.) mandarinus stilwelli Cotton & Hu ssp. nov.

The purpose of this application under Article 75.6 of the Code is to conserve the specific names of the European ‘Small Apollo’ butterfly Parnassius phoebus (Fabricius, 1793) and the Altai ‘Apollo’ butterfly Parnassius ariadne (Lederer, 1853) in their current usage. Hanus & Theye (2010) discovered that the traditional concept of the name P. phoebus was a misidentification and published actions contrary to Art. 75.6. We herein request that the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature use its plenary power to set aside all previous type fixations for the nominal species Papilio phoebusFabricius, 1793, and to designate a neotype representative of the current usage of P. phoebus.