Unraveling the diversification history of grasshoppers belonging to the “Trimerotropis pallidipennis”(Oedipodinae: Acrididae) species group: a hotspot of biodiversity in the Central Andes

Abstract

The Andean Mountain range has been recognized as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. The proposed mechanisms for such species diversification, among others, are due to the elevation processes occurring during the Miocene and the intensive glacial action during the Pleistocene. In this study we investigated the diversification history of the grasshopper Trimerotropis pallidipennis species complex which shows a particularly wide latitudinal and altitudinal distribution range across the northern, central and southern Andes in South America. Many genetic lineages of this complex have been so far discovered, making it an excellent model to investigate the role of the central Andes Mountains together with climatic fluctuations as drivers of speciation. Phylogenetics, biogeographic and molecular clock analyses using a multi-locus dataset revealed that in Peru there are at least two, and possibly four genetic lineages. Two different stocks originated from a common ancestor from North/Central America—would have dispersed toward southern latitudes favored by the closure of the Panama Isthmus giving rise to two lineages, the coastal and mountain lineages, which still coexist in Peru (i.e., T. pallidipennis and T. andeana). Subsequent vicariant and dispersal events continued the differentiation process, giving rise to three to six genetic lineages (i.e., clades) detected in this study, which were geographically restricted to locations dispersed over the central Andes Mountains in South America. Our results provide another interesting example of “island diversification” motored by the topography plus unstable climatic conditions during the Pleistocene, pointing out the presence of a hotspot of diversification in the Andean region of Peru.

Molecular phylogeny and species delimitation of the genus Tonkinacris (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae) from China

“…While the sequences of ITS1 in the genus Melanoplus had appreciable differences when insertions and deletions were taken into account, its utility might be questionable because of the long stretches of very high homology in this region [46]. Despite the fact that ITS2 sequences have been used to explore phylogeny and delimitate species boundary in some grasshopper groups [51][52][53], our previous [22] and present studies achieved similar results to the supposition by Kuperus & Chapco [46]. In this study, the relationship within and between closely species was nearly completely unresolved using ITS1 and ITS2, but the relationship at the subfamily level was resolved much better, and the monophyly of the subfamily Melanoplinae and some distantly related species was retrieved with high bootstrap values or posterior probabilities in most phylogenetic trees from ITS1 or ITS2 (S2, S5, S6, S9 and S10 Figs), except in the ML tree from ITS1 (S1 Fig) in which the monophyly of the subfamily Melanoplinae was not supported.…”

The Galápagos Islands: biogeographic patterns and geology

“…Sphingonotini (New World part of distribution only; Sphingonotus fuscoirroratus on the Galápagos, S. punensis on Puná I., and S. haitensis in the Greater Antilles). Trimerotropini (total distribution) ( Circotettix , Conozoa , Dissosteira , Spharagemon , Trimerotropis ) (Rehn, 1939; Husemann et al ., 2013, 2015; Guzmán et al ., 2017 b ). (B) Distribution of a clade in Cactaceae (Lendel, 2013; Barthlott et al ., 2015; Plantsoftheworldonline.org).…”

Phylogeny and species delimitation of the genus Longgenacris and Fruhstorferiola viridifemorata species group (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae) based on molecular evidence

“…Species delimitation using molecular data has attracted more and more attention from systematists and taxonomists because of the rapid development of sequencing techniques and bioinformatic methods. There are many successful cases in grasshoppers using molecular evidence for species delimitation so far [ 5 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 11 – 14 , 19 – 21 ]. Molecular approaches for species delimitation can be used not only to confirm delimitations proposed by traditional taxonomy [ 11 ], but also to delimit new species under an integrative taxonomy framework despite the possibility of oversplitting sometimes [ 9 ].…”

“…Species delimitation using molecular data has attracted more and more attention from systematists and taxonomists because of the rapid development of sequencing techniques and bioinformatic methods. There are many successful cases in grasshoppers using molecular evidence for species delimitation so far [5,6,8,9,[11][12][13][14][19][20][21]. Molecular approaches for…”