Archived Comments for:
Deep mitochondrial divergence within a Heliconiusbutterfly species is not explained by cryptic speciation or endosymbiotic bacteria
Regarding the screening of Heliconius for endosymbionts
Jeremy Kipling, Retired/independent
30 May 2012
The authors state in the discussion that "this is the first published study in which the presence of endosymbionts is tested in Heliconius" and in the abstract that these were "the first tests for the presence of endosymbiontic [sic] bacteria in Heliconius." I wanted to correct this by referring to the 1995 paper by Werren, Windsor, and Guo here in which they screened three H. erato and one H. melpomene (see Table 2). Obviously a very small sample size, but still worth mentioning.
Regarding the screening of Heliconius for endosymbionts
30 May 2012
The authors state in the discussion that "this is the first published study in which the presence of endosymbionts is tested in Heliconius" and in the abstract that these were "the first tests for the presence of endosymbiontic [sic] bacteria in Heliconius." I wanted to correct this by referring to the 1995 paper by Werren, Windsor, and Guo here in which they screened three H. erato and one H. melpomene (see Table 2). Obviously a very small sample size, but still worth mentioning.
Competing interests
None declared