Independent origins of coastal colonization in the tribe Athetini (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae)

Abstract

Less than 1% of Staphylinidae are known to be confined to coastal habitats. To explore the origins of coastal colonization within the tribe Athetini Casey, we present a revised molecular phylogeny. The dataset comprised partial mitochondrial COI, COII, 16S rDNA, NADH1, partial nuclear 18S rDNA and 28S rDNA. We chose a total of 95 species in 51 genera, including 14 coastal species in eight genera and 21 outgroup species from other aleocharine tribes. The concatenated dataset was analysed simultaneously by both parsimony‐ and model‐based (Bayesian and maximum likelihood) methods. The tribe Athetini was not supported as a monophyletic group, but together with the tribes Tachyusini, Ecitocharini and Hygronomini did form a monophylum. The ecological association of species with a coastal habitat was mapped onto a phylogeny to assess the evolution of habitat specialization in the Athetini lineage. The results reveal that five independent origins of coastal colonization have occurred throughout the tribe Athetini: (a) Osakatheta + Adota minuta + coastal Atheta (Badura) (clade A); (b) Adota (clade B); (c) Pontomalota + Tarphiota + Thinusa (clade C); (d) Iotarphia (clade D); and (e) Psammostiba (clade E). The low species number of the coastal Athetini compared with the entire Athetini lineage indicates that coastal habitats are harsh environments and so only a few species were able to colonize this habitat. The following changes in classification are proposed: (a) Ad. minuta Lee and Ahn is removed from the genus Adota and tentatively included in Atheta (Badura); (b) The genus Saphocallus Sharp is transferred from Athetini to Geostibini.

Total‐evidence phylogeny of the coastalCafiuscomplex (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and its new generic concepts

“…We newly added two nuclear protein coding genes ( AK and TP ) to Jeon et al., (2012) because they were known to be useful in phylogenetic inference within Staphylininae (Chani‐Posse et al., 2018; Chatzimanolis, 2014). The genes COI and COII were selected to provide resolution at lower taxonomic levels (species and generic) (Jeon et al., 2012; Song & Ahn, 2013, 2014, 2018), while 12S , 16S (Elven et al., 2012; Osswald et al., 2013; Song et al., 2019; Thomas, 2009) and 18S were used to provide resolution deeper among genera (Ahn et al., 2010; Elven et al., 2012; Grebennikov & Newton, 2009; Song et al., 2019).…”

Resurrection and taxonomy of Psammostiba multipunctata (Sawada, 1971) (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae)

“…Partial COI gene sequences from 10 individuals representing six Psammostiba species were newly generated and deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers (OR069386–OR069395). The A. tokiokai sequence was from Song et al (2019; accession number MK234519).…”