The global increase in species richness toward the tropics across continents and taxonomic groups, referred to as the latitudinal diversity gradient, stimulated the formulation of many hypotheses to explain the underlying mechanisms of this pattern. We evaluate several of these hypotheses to explain spatial diversity patterns in a butterfly family, the Nymphalidae, by assessing the contributions of speciation, extinction, and dispersal, and also the extent to which these processes differ among regions at the same latitude. We generate a time-calibrated phylogeny containing 2,866 nymphalid species (~45% of extant diversity). Neither speciation nor extinction rate variations consistently explain the latitudinal diversity gradient among regions because temporal diversification dynamics differ greatly across longitude. The Neotropical diversity results from low extinction rates, not high speciation rates, and biotic interchanges with other regions are rare. Southeast Asia is also characterized by a low speciation rate but, unlike the Neotropics, is the main source of dispersal events through time. Our results suggest that global climate change throughout the Cenozoic, combined with tropical niche conservatism, played a major role in generating the modern latitudinal diversity gradient of nymphalid butterflies.

Australian Museum 6 College Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia

Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Entomology České Budějovice Czech Republic

City College of New York and Graduate Center CUNY New York NY USA

CNRS UMR 5554 Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier Place Eugene Bataillon 34095 Montpellier France

Cummington Street Department of Biology Boston University Boston MA 02215 USA

Departamento de Biologia Animal Instituto de Biologia Universidade Estadual de Campinas 13083 862 Campinas SP Brazil

Departamento de Química y Biología Universidad del Norte Barranquilla Colombia

Department of Biological Sciences University of New Orleans New Orleans LA USA

Department of Ecology Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Ulls väg 16 75651 Uppsala Sweden

Department of Life and Earth Sciences Perimeter College Georgia State University 33 Gilmer Street Atlanta GA 30303 USA

Department of Life Sciences Natural History Museum London SW7 5BD UK

Department of Zoology Stockholm University 10691 Stockholm Sweden

Department of Zoology University of Cambridge Downing St Cambridge CB2 3EJ UK

Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology University of Kent Canterbury CT2 7NR UK

Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre Gothenburg Sweden

IISER TVM Centre for Research and Education in Ecology and Evolution School of Biology Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram India

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva Barcelona Spain

ISYEB CNRS MNHN Sorbonne Université EPHE Université des Antilles 57 rue Cuvier Paris 75005 France

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity Florida Museum of Natural History University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611 USA

Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Lima Peru

National Museum of Natural History Manila Philippines

Nature Education Centre Jagiellonian University ul Gronostajowa 5 30 387 Kraków Poland

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Gamboa Panama

Systematic Biology Group Department of Biology Lund University Lund Sweden

Universidade Estadual de Campinas Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética Av Candido Rondom 400 13083 875 Campinas SP Brazil

Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Seattle WA USA

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