The world's largest butterfly genus Delias, commonly known as Jezebels, comprises ca. 251 species found throughout Asia, Australia, and Melanesia. Most species are endemic to islands in the Indo-Australian Archipelago or to New Guinea and nearby islands in Melanesia, and many species are restricted to montane habitats over 1200 m. We inferred an extensively sampled and well-supported molecular phylogeny of the group to better understand the spatial and temporal dimensions of its diversification. The remarkable diversity of Delias evolved in just ca. 15-16 Myr (crown age). The most recent common ancestor of a clade with most of the species dispersed out of New Guinea ca. 14 Mya, but at least six subsequently diverging lineages dispersed back to the island. Diversification was associated with frequent dispersal of lineages among the islands of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, and the divergence of sister taxa on a single landmass was rare and occurred only on the largest islands, most notably on New Guinea. We conclude that frequent inter-island dispersal during the Neogene-likely facilitated by frequent sea level change-sparked much diversification during that period. Many extant New Guinea lineages started diversifying 5 Mya, suggesting that orogeny facilitated their diversification. Our results largely agree with the most recently proposed species group classification system, and we use our large taxon sample to extend this system to all described species. Finally, we summarize recent insights to speculate how wing pattern evolution, mimicry, and sexual selection might also contribute to these butterflies' rapid speciation and diversification.

Animal Biology Division Institute of Biological Sciences University of the Philippines Los Baños Laguna Philippines

Australian Museum Sydney NSW Australia

Avenue du Port Sibouliere Dinard France

College of Life Science National Taiwan Normal University Taipei Taiwan

Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences The University of Tokyo Yayoi Bunkyo ku Tokyo Japan

Department of Biology City College of New York City University of New York USA

Department of Biology City College of New York City University of New York USA; Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Branisovska 31 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic; Faculty of Science Department of Zoology University of South Bohemia Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Department of Biology City College of New York City University of New York USA; PhD Program in Biology Graduate Center City University of New York New York NY USA

Department of Biology City College of New York City University of New York USA; PhD Program in Biology Graduate Center City University of New York New York NY USA; Entomology Section National Museum of Natural History Manila Philippines

Department of Biology College of Arts and Sciences and Center for Biodiversity Research and Extension in Mindanao Central Mindanao University Musuan Maramag Bukidnon Philippines

Department of Entomology Natural History Museum of Geneva Geneva Switzerland

Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University Cambridge MA USA

Division of Ecology and Evolution Research School of Biology The Australian National University Acton ACT Australia; Australian National Insect Collection Canberra ACT Australia

Laboratorio de Ecología y Morfometría Evolutiva Centro de Investigación de Estudios Avanzados del Maule Universidad Católica del Maule Talca Chile

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

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity Florida Museum of Natural History University of Florida Gainesville FL USA; Entomology and Nematology Department and Department of Biology University of Florida Gainesville FL USA

Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense Research Center for Biosystematics and Evolution National Research and Innovation Agency Cibinong Bogor Indonesia

Saitama Study Center The Open University of Japan Ômiya ku Japan

Sritana Condominium 2 96 173 Huay Kaeo Rd T Suthep A Muang Chiang Mai Thailand

T G Masaryk Water Research Institute Prague Czech Republic

Vietnam National Museum of Nature Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology Cau Giay Hanoi Viet Nam

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