Mitogenome of the Doleschallia bisaltide and Phylogenetic Analysis of Nymphalinae (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Liu et al present a fairly well conducted study into the phylogenetic placement of a butterfly whose tribal placement has been contested. I've provided pretty extensive suggestions to improve the written expression and utility of the study to the broader field. Please utilise those suggestions in any revision.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
The manuscript has been revised according to the comments and suggestions carefully. Responses are in the attachment. Thank you very much for your helpful comments and detailed suggestions for this manuscript.
Corresponding author: Yalin Zhang; E-mail: yalinzh@nwsuaf.edu.cn
Yours sincerely,
Ning Liu
Ph.D., Entomology
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This is an interesting paper, in that the authors have obtained the full mitochondrial genome of a species of Nymphalidae (Doleschallia bisaltide) as well as four nuclear genes, and incorporated this new data in various phylogenetic reconstructions in order to determine the robustness of tribal classification in the subfamily and placement of various genera within this scheme. Results are compared and contrasted with previous studies.
Despite the mitogenome being the primary achievement of this study, the discussions around which takes up about half of this paper, the authors have chosen not to mention it at all in the title of the paper. The title needs to be modified to reflect the fact that a phylogeny of Nymphalinae was in fact only a secondary goal of this study.
My only other concern is about the presentation of the phylogenies (Figures 2-4). I think they can be improved by reducing the font size used for subfamilies and increasing brach thickness (which will reflect the colors better). I also encourage the authors to try to find a different and creative visualization method to replace the long strands of support values, especially in figures 3 and 4.
I have made additional linguistic and grammatical corrections in the attached manuscript. I think the paper can be considered for publication upon a minor revision.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
The manuscript has been revised according to the comments and suggestions carefully. Responses are in the attachment. Thank you very much for your helpful comments and detailed suggestions for this manuscript.
Corresponding author: Yalin Zhang; E-mail: yalinzh@nwsuaf.edu.cn
Yours sincerely,
Ning Liu
Ph.D., Entomology
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Liu et al. analyze the phylogeny of Nymphalinae using the mitogenome and nuclear genes. First, the authors analyze the mitogenome of Doleschallia bisaltide in detail. Then, they used it and database sequences to design several datasets and perform the phylogenetic study combining nuclear and mitochondrial genes. From the study, the authors conclude that Nymphalinae is not a monophyletic group. More research is needed to get a clear picture of the phylogeny of this subfamily of lepidopterans.
The introduction is informative and provides the reader with enough information to follow the article. However, it would be helpful to provide some reasoning for selecting the nuclear genes. In addition, in some instances, the authors did not use representatives from all the genera mentioned in each tribe. It should be explained why they selected only some of them. Are they not available?
The material and methods are thoroughly described providing detailed information on the procedures. The results are presented adequately, and the discussion fits them. The literature is up-to-date and helps the reader follow the authors' proposals.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer，
The manuscript has been revised according to the comments and suggestions carefully. Responses are in the attachment. Thank you very much for your comments for this manuscript.
Corresponding author: Yalin Zhang; E-mail: yalinzh@nwsuaf.edu.cn
Yours sincerely,
Ning Liu
Ph.D., Entomology
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
