Molecular phylogeny of bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) based on 18 molecular markers

Abstract

This thesis consists of a synthesis and three individual papers. The experimental PhD research activity was developed during three years (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015).

Morphological and Molecular Perspectives on the Phylogeny, Evolution, and Classification of Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea): Proceedings from the 2016 International Weevil Meeting

“…Previous attempts to establish a robust phylogeny of the group have failed, particularly due to the lack of resolution at basal nodes. A recent study focused on PCR screening of 100 genes, resulting in 16 promising markers and 13 that were ultimately used for phylogenetics [22]. Some improvement was obtained in the present study, with increased, albeit still limited, resolution of basal nodes.…”

“…More characters resulting from ongoing work in the Jordal lab will be described and used in the future. Emerging patterns of relationships on the basis of morphological characters are largely congruent with relationships reconstructed from analysis of molecular data (e.g., see [20][21][22]). However, the deep nodes in the phylogeny of Scolytinae are not supported in the published few-gene molecular data sets: more data are apparently needed to resolve these relationships (see [23] Entiminae.…”

Patterns of coevolution between ambrosia beetle mycangia and the Ceratocystidaceae, with five new fungal genera and seven new species

“…The estimated fungal divergence dates were compared to the origins of their associated mycangia using the crown dates estimated by Gohli et al (2017) and Pistone et al (2018) . Specifically, the mesonotal pouch mycangium clade included the monophyletic Xylosandrus complex ( Johnson et al 2018 , Skelton et al 2019 ) (i.e., Xyleborini genera with mesonotal mycangia: Anisandrus , Cnestus , Eccoptopterus , Hadrodemius , and Xylosandrus ); the prothoracic coil mycangium clade included Corthylus (subtribe Corthylina ) ; the prothoracic pleural mycangium clade included Trypodendron (tribe Xyloterini ); and the pronotal disk mycangium clade included Remansus and Scolytoplatypus (tribe Scolytoplatypodini ).…”

“…We expected that the large mycangia of tribe Scolytoplatypodini would yield a fourth ambrosial genus in the Ceratocystidaceae . Tribe Scolytoplatypodini is possibly the oldest ambrosia beetle lineage with large mycangia ( Jordal 2013 , Gohli et al 2017 , Pistone et al 2018 ), and we hypothesize that the genera of ambrosia fungi in the Ceratocystidaceae were derived from a single ancestral domestication by tribe Scolytoplatypodini and that descendents of this ambrosial ancestor were horizontally transferred to other beetle tribes after they developed large mycangia. If this is the case, we expect that the crown age of each mycangium type will predate the crown age of its associated ambrosia fungi.…”

Characterization of the complete mitochondrial genome of Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff, 1868) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and its phylogenetic implications

“…The weevil subfamily Scolytinae Latreille, referred to as bark beetles, is composed of a highly diversified group of beetles with more than 6000 species assigning to 282 genera (Hulcr et al 2015;Pistone et al 2018). Euwallaceae fornicates is native to Asia but it was recently introduced to Israel, South Africa, and the United States (California) (Smith et al 2019).…”