Free Standard AU & NZ Shipping For All Book Orders Over $80!
Register      Login
Invertebrate Systematics Invertebrate Systematics Society
Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography
RESEARCH ARTICLE

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 B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A 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.


References


Axelrod D. I., Kalin Arroyo M. T., Raven P. H. (1991) Historical development of temperate vegetation in the Americas. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 64, 413–446. [verified August 2006].

Janssens A. (1949) Contribution à l’étude des coléoptères lamellicornes. XII. Table synoptique et essai de classification practique de coléoptères Scarabaeidae. Bulletin de la Royale Société Scientifique de Bretagne 15, 1–30. [verified August 2006].

Ringuelet R. A. (1961) Un nuevo opilión de Sierra de la Ventana. Physis 21, 326–327. open url image1

Roig F. A., De Marco G., Wuilloud C. (1980) El límite entre las provincias fitogeográficas del Monte y de la Patagonia en las llanuras altas de San Carlos. Boletín de la Sociedad Argentina de Botánica 19, 331–338. open url image1

Roig-Juñent S., and Flores G. (2001). Historia biogeográfica de las areas áridas de América del Sur austral. In ‘Introducción a la Biogeografía en Latinoamérica: Teorías, Conceptos, Métodos y Aplicaciones’. (Eds J. Llorente Bousquetes and J. J. Morrone.) pp. 257–271. (Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, UNAM: Mexico City, Mexico.)

Roig-Juñent S., Flores G., Claver S., Debandi G., Marvaldi A. (2001) Monte desert (Argentina): insect biodiversity and natural areas. Journal of Arid Environments 47, 77–94.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Scholtz C. H. (1989) Unique foraging behaviour in Pachysoma (= Scarabaeus) striatum Castelnau (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): an adaptation to arid conditions? Journal of Arid Environments 16, 305–313. open url image1

Scholtz C. H., Harrison J. Du G., Grebennikov V. V. (2004) Dung beetle (Scarabaeus (Pachysoma)) biology and immature stages: reversal to ancestral states under desert conditions (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 83, 453–460.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | open url image1

Swofford D. L. (1998). ‘PAUP*: Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (* and other methods), version 4.0.’ (Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA, USA.)

Thompson J. D., Gibson T. J., Plewniak F., Jeanmougin F., Higgins D. G. (1997) The clustalX windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Research 25, 4876–4882.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Villalba S., Lobo J. M., Martín-Piera F., Zardoya R. (2002) Phylogenetic relationships of Iberian dung beetles (Coeloptera: Scarabaeinae): insights on the evolution of nesting behavior. Journal of Molecular Evolution 55, 116–126.
Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed | open url image1

Whiting M. F., Carpenter J. C., Wheeler Q. D., Wheeler W. C. (1997) The strepsiptera problem: phylogeny of the holometabolous insect orders inferred from 18S and 28S ribosomal DNA sequences and morphology. Systematic Biology 46, 1–68.
Crossref | PubMed |
open url image1

Zunino M. E. (1983) Essai préliminar e sur l’evolution des armures genitals des Scarabaeinae, par rapport à la taxonomie du groupe et à l’évolution du comportement de nidification. Bulletin de la Société Enomologique de France 88, 531–542. open url image1

Zunino M. E. (1985) Las relaciones taxonómicas de los Phanaeina (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) y sus implicaciones biogeográficas. Folia Entomológica Mexicana 64, 101–115. open url image1

Zunino M., Barbero E., Luzzatto M. (1989) Food relocation behavior in Eucraniina beetles (Scarabaeidae) and the constraints of xeric environment. Tropical Zoology 2, 235–240. open url image1

Zunino M., Barbero E., Palestrini C., Luzzatto M. (1991) La taxocenosi a scarabeidi coprofagi xerico: materiali per un’analisi biogeografica storico-causale. Biogeographia 15, 41–47. open url image1