Colorado Checkerspot Butterflies: Isolation, Neutrality, and the Biospecies

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Abstract
Colorado E. editha populations completely isolated from well-studied West Coast populations for at least 7000 generations show strong phenetic and, at 7 of 8 loci, genetic resemblance to them. The patterns of allozyme variation are not compatible with the hypothesis that the observed variation is only a result of mutation and drift. E. editha appears to be an example of a phenetic species that maintains its coherence because its populations are kept similar by similar selection pressures or by a neutral genetic inertia, not by the unifying effects of gene flow.