Post by Mukta Joshi

Excited to share our latest work on species delimitation in alpine Lepidoptera🦋 Species boundaries aren’t always clear—especially under allopatry. In this study, we use genomic data to resolve ambiguous COI divergence patterns in alpine moths, and integrate these insights with traditional taxonomy to uncover hidden diversity in Symmoca signella species complex. This integrative approach led to the description of two new species of moths - Symmoca schimidi and Symmoca volatilis, from the Alps. Overall, our work highlights the value of combining genomics with classical taxonomy to achieve more robust and reliable species delimitation. Grateful to my co-authors for this truly rewarding collaboration. Read more here about how we used target enrichment phylogenomics together with detailed morphological characterization to describe these new species - https://lnkd.in/emSadb_R