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Dear All,<br><br>
I have put in for a symposium on Heliconius and Ithomiinae at the Biology
of Butterflies Rome conference in 2007 which I hope is in more or less
accordance with your expressed wishes. There is a shortage of space
at the meeting, which is limited to 200 places total (I suggest
pre-registering early! Go to http://biobutterfly2007.uniroma2.it/ and do
it now; it doesn't cost anything yet).<br><br>
We are limited to 3.5 hours, which means an absolute maximum of ten talks
at 20 mins each. So please be aware that if your name is not on the
list, or you were amalgamated with another person, we had to make some
tough decisions. On the other hand, the programme is very much not
set in concrete yet (even assuming our proposal is accepted), so do
please let me know if you want to make changes to what I have
suggested. Write also if you want to add yourself to the list, and
we will see what we can do!<br><br>
There may be some people who will not be able to come for reasons of
expense or other problems, and then we can add people as necessary.
Also, please see details of the speciation symposium which will possibly
be organised alongside this, and might allow some overflow from this
symposium.<br><br>
Below, please find proposal and covering email.<br><br>
Sincerely, Jim<br><br>
<b>Proposal for symposium on neotropical
butterflies<font face="Courier New, Courier"> for
BioButterflies2007<br>
Mimicry and Evolution of the Heliconiinae and Ithomiinae<br>
</b>Time allocation: 3.5 hours<br><br>
<i>Symposium Convenors<br><br>
</i><b>James Mallet<br>
</b>Professor of Biological Diversity, Galton Laboratory, Department of
Biology, University College London<br>
tel: (+44) 20 7679 7412<br>
fax: (+44) 20 7679 5052<br>
email:
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" color="#0000FF"><u>j.mallet@ucl.ac.uk<br><br>
</u></font><font face="Courier New, Courier"><b>Chris Jiggins<br>
</b>Royal Society University Research Fellow, Institute of Evolutionary
Biology, University of Edinburgh<br>
tel: (+44) 131 650 8624<br>
email:
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" color="#0000FF"><u>chris.jiggins@ed.ac.uk<br><br>
</u></font><font face="Courier New, Courier"><b>W. Owen McMillan<br>
</b>Professor, Department of Zoology, North Carolina State
University<br>
email:
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier" color="#0000FF"><u>womcmill@ncsu.edu<br><br>
<br>
</u></font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=4><i>Outline <br><br>
</i></font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=3>Neotropical
butterflies in the subfamilies Heliconiinae and Ithomiinae were the
source of the original theories of mimicry by Bates and Müller in the
1860s-1870s. Today, they have become a model system in studies of
biodiversity, coevolution, mimicry and speciation. In the last 10
years, modern molecular and interdisciplinary studies have led to an
acceleration of the pace of this work. Key areas under intense
study today are (1) genomic approaches to the evolution and development
of colour pattern, (2) field studies of selection for mimicry,
particularly in hybrid zones and zones of polymorphism, and (3)
hybridization and speciation.<br><br>
The current symposium is proposed to provide a forum to pull together
recent work in these key areas. By the time of the Biology of
Butterflies Cconference in 2007, we expect that substantial fractions of
<i>Heliconius</i> genomes will have been sequenced, including the likely
identification of one or more key genes involved in switching colour
patterns. In addition, a startling claim for hybrid
speciation has already been made for the Colombian species <i>Heliconius
heurippa</i> in the journal "Nature", and further species are
also suspected to have resulted from the same process known as
"homoploid hybrid speciation". (In plants, many
allopolyploid hybrid species exist, but the process of homoploid hybrid
speciation is thought to be rare). These are among the best documented
cases of hybrid speciation in the animals. Finally, recent
extraordinarily laborious field studies in the neotropics have led to a
firm experimental basis for understanding of the evolution of warning
colour and mimicry.<br><br>
The programme will pull together a diverse, international group of young
and older biologists. The extremely high profile of this topic is
demonstrated by worldwide publicity for the recent Nature paper on hybrid
speciation in <i>Heliconius</i> will ensure that the forum will be of
very broad interest to other butterfly biologists.<br>
</font><font face="Courier New, Courier"><i></font><font face="Courier New, Courier" size=4>Proposed
speakers and talks<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Courier New, Courier"><b>Ricardo Papa</b> and
<b>W. Owen McMillan, North Carolina State University<br>
</b>An integrated genomic map of mimicry evolution in <i>Heliconius
erato<br><br>
</i><b>Chris Jiggins</b> and others, <b>University of Edinburgh<br>
</b>Molecular evolution and development of mimicry genes and speciation
in the <i>melpomene</i> group of <i>Heliconius<br><br>
</i><b>Robert Reed, Duke University, North Carolina<br>
</b>The molecular basis of colour pattern development in
<i>Heliconius</i> and other nymphalids<br><br>
<b>Mathieu Joron, University of Leiden, Netherlands<br>
</b>Evolution of a Müllerian mimicry supergene in <i>Heliconius
numata<br><br>
</i><b>Gary Langham, University of California, Berkeley<br>
</b>Jacamars and selection for mimicry in <i>Heliconius<br><br>
</i><b>Marcus Kronforst</b>, <b>Durrell Kapan</b> and <b>Lawrence E.
Gilbert Jr., University of Texas and University of Hawaii<br>
</b>Genetics of speciation in <i>Heliconius</i> butterflies<br><br>
<b>Mauricio Linares</b>, <b>Christan Salcedo</b> and others, Universidad
<b>de Los Andes, Bogotá<br>
</b>Hybridization and speciation in the Colombian Andes<br><br>
<b>Jesús Mavárez, STRI Panama<br>
</b><i>Heliconius heurippa</i> and further new examples of hybrid
speciation and interspecific gene flow in <i>Heliconius<br><br>
</i><b>André Freitas, Universidade Estadual do Campinas, Brasil<br>
</b>Rapid speciation in Acraeini and Ithomiini<br><br>
<b>Kanchon Dasmahapatra</b> and <b>James Mallet, University College
London<br>
</b>A test of refugium theory in the Heliconiina and Ithomiinae using
gene genalogies<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><i>Email cover
note<br><br>
</i></font>To: biobutterfly2007@bio.uniroma2.it<br>
From: Jim Mallet <j.mallet@ucl.ac.uk><br>
Subject: Symposium on Heliconius and Ithomiinae biology<br>
Date: 30 June 2006<br><br>
Dear Valerio and colleagues,<br><br>
I attach a proposal for a symposium at the Biology of Butterflies.
I believe this proposal is an excellent one which summarizes the new
science in one of the most rapidly growing areas in butterfly research
today.<br><br>
I have also discussed with Marcus Kronforst, Jesus Mavarez and Durrell
Kapan the possibility of another symposium on butterfly speciation in
general, which could partly overlap with this (since many of the recent
advances on speciation in butterflies have been in Heliconius and
Ithomiinae).<br><br>
I understand that Durrell Kapan will be submitting a proposal to you in
the next hour or so. If that proposal went ahead, we could remove
some of our speciation-oriented speakers to the butterfly speciation
symposium and make room for other speakers on Heliconius and Ithomiinae
(such as Bob Srygley (Korea), Carla Penz (USA/Brazil), or Gerardo Lamas
(Peru), for example).<br><br>
Yours sincerely, James Mallet<br><br>
James Mallet<br>
Professor of Biological Diversity<br>
Galton Laboratory<br>
University College London<br>
4 Stephenson Way<br>
LONDON NW1 2HE<br>
tel: (+44)-(0)20-7679-7411<br>
fax: (+44)-(0)20-7679-5052<br>
web:
<a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/" eudora="autourl">http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/</a><br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
James Mallet<br>
<a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/" eudora="autourl">http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/<br>
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