Molecular phylogenetics and evolution of the food relocation behaviour of the dung beetle tribe Eucraniini (Coleoptera : Scarabaeidae : Scarabaeinae)
Federico C. Ocampo A C and David C. Hawks BA Division of Entomology, W 436 Nebraska Hall, University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, NE 68588-0546, USA.
B Department of Entomology, University of California Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
C Corresponding author. Email: focampo@unlserve.unl.edu
Invertebrate Systematics 20(5) 557-570 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS05031
Submitted: 15 July 2005 Accepted: 24 July 2006 Published: 12 October 2006
Abstract
A phylogenetic analysis using 28S and 18S rDNA provides evidence that the tribe Eucraniini is a monophyletic group and the sister-group of the Phanaeini and Dichotomiini. Our molecular phylogeny of the dung beetle tribes provides strong evidence for the monophyly of the subfamily Scarabaeinae. The monophyly of the tribe Eucraniini is well supported and it includes the genera Anomiopsoides Blackwelder, Ennearabdus van Lansberge, Eucranium Brullé and Glyphoderus Westwood. The food-lifting relocation behaviour present in species of Eucranium, Anomiopsoides and Glyphoderus is considered a derived condition and it most probably evolved from tunnelling behaviour. The preference for dry dung or dung pellets by species of Eucraniini genera, and feeding on plant material by species of Anomiopsoides, are considered apomorphic. Our analyses suggest that rolling behaviour in the Scarabaeinae evolved at least twice during their evolution. The incidence of high endemicity of dung beetles in the Monte biogeographic province of Argentina suggests that the area constitutes an independent centre of evolution. Our hypothesis is that a vicariant event was responsible for the divergence of the Eucraniini from a Neotropical lineage ancestral to Eucraniini and Phanaeini. The isolation of the Eucraniini lineage probably occurred after the Andean uplift during the Quechua diastrophism (middle Miocene) that resulted in the creation of xeric plains in austral regions of South America.
Acknowledgments
We thank Brett Ratcliffe (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) for his critical review of the manuscript and valuable comments. This project was supported by an NSF/PEET grant (DEB-0118669) to Mary Liz Jameson and Brett Ratcliffe, by an NSF Biotic Surveys and Inventory grant (DEB 0342189) to Andrew Smith and Federico Ocampo, by a Graduate Student Research Support Award from the Initiative for Ecological and Evolutionary Analysis (IEEA) at the University of Nebraska to Federico Ocampo and by a Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBVA) project: ‘Diseño de una red de reserves para la protección de la biodiversidad en América del Sur Austral, utilizando modelos predictivos de distribución con taxones hiperdiversos’. We are grateful to John Heraty (University of California, Riverside) for the generous use of his molecular systematics laboratory and other resources. The first author is grateful to Sergio Roig, Gustavo Flores, Guillermo Debandi (IADIZA) Mendoza and David Gorla (CRILAR) La Rioja, Argentina, for their help and for providing logistic support during field trips conducted in Argentina in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
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