Subspecific Differentiation Events of Montane Stag Beetles (Coleoptera, Lucanidae) Endemic to Formosa Island

Abstract

Taxonomic debates have been carrying on for decades over Formosan stag beetles, which consist of a high proportion of endemic species and subspecies featuring morphological variations associated with local adaptation. With the influence of periodical Pleistocene glaciations and the presence of several mountain ranges, the genetic differentiation and taxonomic recognition, within this medium-size island, of two endemic subspecies for each of four montane stag beetles, i.e. Lucanus ogakii, L. kanoi, Prismognathus davidis, and Neolucanus doro, has been an appealing issue. Based on monophyletic lineages and population structure, possible divergent scenarios have been proposed to clarify the subspecific status for each of the above mentioned stag beetles. Phylogenetic inferences based on COI+16S rDNA+28S rDNA of 240 Formosan lucanids have confirmed most species are monophyletic groups; and the intraspecific (<2%) and interspecific (>2%) genetic distances of the two mitochondrial genes could be applied concordantly for taxonomic identification. On account of Bayesian-based species delimitation, geographic distribution, population structure, and sequence divergences, the subspecific status for L. ogakii, L. kanoi, and Pri. davidis are congruent with their geographic distribution in this island; and the calibration time based on the mitochondrial genes shows the subspecific split events occurred 0.7–1 million years ago. In addition, a more complicated scenario, i.e. genetic differentiation including introgression/hybridization events, might have occurred among L. ogakii, L. kanoi, and L. maculifemoratus. The geological effects of mountain hindrance accompanied by periodical glaciations could have been vital in leading to the geographical subspecific differentiation of these montane stag beetles.

New Mitogenomes of Two Chinese Stag Beetles (Coleoptera, Lucanidae) and Their Implications for Systematics

“… Hosoya and Araya (2005) reconstructed the first molecular phylogeny of stag beetles (based on the molecular markers cox1 and rrnL ) although using a small data set of only Japanese species. There has been particular attention to species delimitation and conservation of lucanids from Japan and Taiwan Island, partly because these beetles are popular as pets in these places ( Huang and Lin 2010 , Kubota et al 2011 , Lin et al 2011 , Tsai et al 2014 , Tsai and Yeh 2016 ). Kim and Farrell (2015) performed the first comprehensive phylogenetic study, and revealed a Gondwanan origin of Darwin’s stag beetle.…”

Delineation of two new, highly similar species of Taiwanese Cylindera tiger beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Cicindelinae) based on morphological and molecular evidence

“…Phylogenetic trees inferred from molecular combined data show that both forms in sauteri and pseudocylindriformis groups are monophyletic reciprocally with high support values (Figs 2, 5). The weak phylogenetic resolution inferred from the 28S rDNA fragments of Pintung form and C. pseudocylindriformis might be due to the conserved property of 28S rDNA applying to resolve the relationship of closely related species (Guerra et al 2016; Tsai and Yeh 2016). Phylogenetic inferences, molecular dating, and the deep barcoding gap indicate that the different forms are genetically distinct.…”

Missing data, clade support and “reticulation”: the molecular systematics of Heliconius and related genera (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) re‐examined

“…Alternatively, it could be simply the result of sequence manipulation mistakes such as those we discovered. Nevertheless, K15 has already reached “highly cited” status in ISI (accessed 2 March 2017), and five of those citing articles (Aardema and Andolfatto, ; Padula et al., ; Rönkä et al., ; Tsai and Yeh, ; Wallbank et al., ) espouse their paper as a source of evidence for phylogenetic discordance, introgression and/or hybrid speciation.…”