Molecular Phylogeny, Diversity and Zoogeography of Net-Winged Beetles (Coleoptera: Lycidae)

Abstract

We synthesize the evidence from molecular phylogenetics, extant distribution, and plate tectonics to present an insight in ancestral areas, dispersal routes and the effectiveness of geographic barriers for net-winged beetle tribes (Coleoptera: Lycidae). Samples from all zoogeographical realms were assembled and phylogenetic relationships for ~550 species and 25 tribes were inferred using nuclear rRNA and mtDNA markers. The analyses revealed well-supported clades at the rank of tribes as they have been defined using morphology, but a low support for relationships among them. Most tribes started their diversification in Southeast and East Asia or are endemic to this region. Slipinskiini and Dexorini are Afrotropical endemics and Calopterini, Eurrhacini, Thonalmini, and Leptolycini remained isolated in South America and the Caribbean after their separation from northern continents. Lycini, Calochromini, and Erotini support relationships between the Nearctic and eastern Palearctic faunas; Calochromini colonized the Afrotropical realm from East Asia and Metriorrhynchini Afrotropical and Oriental realms from the drifting Indian subcontinent. Most tribes occur in the Oriental and Sino-Japanese realms, the highest alpha-taxonomic diversity was identified in Malesian tropical rainforests. The turn-over at zoogeographical boundaries is discussed when only short distance over-sea colonization events were inferred. The lycid phylogeny shows that poor dispersers can be used for reconstruction of dispersal and vicariance history over a long time-span, but the current data are insufficient for reconstruction of the early phase of their diversification.

Phylogenomic analysis resolves the relationships among net‐winged beetles (Coleoptera: Lycidae) and reveals the parallel evolution of morphological traits

“…These trees could not be used in robust classification even if datasets were more complete or densely sampled ( Fig. ; Bocak & Bocakova, ; Townsend & Lopez‐Giraldez, ; Masek et al , ).…”

“…This includes both the position of Lycidae within Elateroidea and the relationships among subfamilies and tribes. Previous phylogenetic studies based on morphological data produced large datasets supposedly rich in phylogenetic information, but these phylogenies were largely incompatible with those produced from molecular analyses (Bocak & Bocakova, , ; Branham & Wenzel, ; Kazantsev, , ; Bocakova et al , ; Lawrence et al , ; Kundrata et al , ; McKenna et al , ; Bocak et al , ; Masek et al , ; Zhang et al , ).…”

“…; Bocak & Bocakova, ; Miller, ; Kazantsev, , ). By contrast, molecular phylogenies suggest that neoteny has multiple origins and neotenics occur in limited ranges (Bocak et al , ; Masek et al , ). Therefore, we aimed to test whether neotenic taxa evolved repeatedly in Lycidae, in congruence with evolutionary trends for soft‐bodiedness and neoteny in Elateroidea (Kundrata & Bocak, ; Kundrata et al , ; Bocak et al , ; Kusy et al , ,b).…”

“…There are more than 100 neotenic species of Lycidae, i.e. approximately 3% of 4300 formally described species (Table S1; Kazantsev, ; Masek et al , ). A morphological homoplasy could have evolved along similar lines, as a result of modified metamorphosis (Bocak et al , ; Motyka et al , ; Kusy et al , ).…”

“…Due to these inconsistencies, several incompatible classifications at the subfamily level have been proposed to date for net‐winged beetles (Fig. ; Tables S1–S3; Bocak & Bocakova, , ; Kazantsev, , ; Masek et al , ).…”