Cryptic lineages, cryptic barriers: Historical seascapes and oceanic fronts drive genetic diversity in supralittoral rockpool beetles (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

Abstract Morphologically cryptic lineages confound many estimates of global biodiversity and are often discovered in ecologically specialized taxa, subject to strong morphological constraint. Such a situation may apply in many extreme environments, including supralittoral rockpools, where dramatic fluctuations in water availability and salinity impose strong selection pressures on the inhabitants. Here we explore the genetic diversity and phylogeography of supralittoral rockpool Ochthebius beetles in the eastern Atlantic and western Mediterranean, using a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear markers and dense geographical sampling of the three recognized widespread species. Our results point to the existence of morphologically cryptic lineages within all currently named taxa and suggest that the distribution of these is linked to both historical and contemporary marine hydrogeography; a combination of ocean currents and winds apparently driving the spatial patterns observed. The main contemporary barrier to dispersal for Ochthebius is located around the Ibiza Channel, whilst the Messinian Salinity Crisis appears to have been the ultimate driver of lineage diversification in these insects. Our results show that oceanographic processes do not just shape the evolution of fully marine species, but also impact significantly on the terrestrially derived inhabitants of the coastal zone.</jats:p

A molecular phylogeny of the tribe Ochthebiini (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae, Ochthebiinae)

First published: 27 July 2018.Ochthebiinae, with c. 650 species distributed worldwide, are the second most speciose subfamily of the aquatic beetle family Hydraenidae. They are ecologically the most diverse hydraenid subfamily, with terrestrial species as well as species in almost all types of aquatic habitats, including hypersaline waters. Ochthebiinae include the tribes Ochtheosini (four species in three genera) and Ochthebiini. We provide here the first comprehensive phylogeny of the tribe Ochthebiini, based on 186 species and four subspecies from most genera, subgenera and species groups. We obtained sequence data for a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear gene fragments including the 5′ and 3′ ends of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, the 5′ end of 16S RNA plus the leucine tRNA transfer plus 5′ end of NADH dehydrogenase subunit I, and internal fragments of the large and small ribosomal units. The analyses with maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian probabilities consistently recovered a generally well supported phylogeny, with most currently accepted taxa and species groups as monophyletic. We provide a new classification of the tribe based on our phylogenetic results, with six genera: Meropathus Enderlein, Ochthebius Leach, Protochthebius Perkins, Prototympanogaster Perkins, Tympallopatrum Perkins and Tympanogaster Janssens. The genus Ochthebius is here divided into nine subgenera in addition to Ochthebius s.s.: (1) O. (Angiochthebius) Jäch & Ribera; (2) O. (Asiobates) Thomson; (3) O. (Aulacochthebius) Kuwert; (4) O. (Cobalius) Rey; (5) O. (Enicocerus) Stephens; (6) O. (Gymnanthelius) Perkins comb.n.; (7) O. (Gymnochthebius) Orchymont; (8) O. (Hughleechia) Perkins comb.n.; and (9) O. (Micragasma) Sahlberg. Within Ochthebius s.s., 17 species groups are proposed, five of them newly established (3, 9, 11, 13 and 16): (1) andraei; (2) atriceps; (3) corrugatus; (4) foveolatus; (5) kosiensis; (6) lobicollis; (7) marinus; (8) metallescens; (9) nitidipennis; (10) notabilis; (11) peisonis; (12) punctatus; (13) quadricollis; (14) rivalis; (15) strigosus; (16) sumatrensis; and (17) vandykei. We elevated to species rank two subspecies of Ochthebius: O. fallaciosus Ganglbauer stat.n. (former subspecies of O. viridis Peyron) and O. deletus Rey stat.rest. (former subspecies of O. subpictus Wollaston).AV has a FPI‐MINECO PhD grant from the Spanish Government. This work has been partly funded by project CGL2013‐48950‐C2 (AEI/FEDER, UE) to IR.Peer reviewe

Two new high Andean species of Liodessus diving beetles from Venezuela (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Bidessini)

Two new species of the diving beetle genus Liodessus Guignot, 1939 are described from high mountain regions in Venezuela: Liodessus meridensis sp. nov. from Laguna de Mucabají, Mérida and L. venezuelensis sp. nov. from Laguna de Mucabají and below Pico Bolívar, Mérida. We delineate the species using morphological characters such as male genital structure and beetle size, shape and color. Mitochondrial cox1 sequence data provided an additional character source. Both new species occur at altitudes above 3,500 m and were collected in shallow water at the edge of high-altitude ponds

A molecular phylogeny of the tribe Ochthebiini (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae, Ochthebiinae)

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Villastrigo, Adrián; Jäch, Manfred A.; Cardoso, Anabela ; Valladares, Luis F.; Ribera, Ignacio; 2018; "A molecular phylogeny of the tribe Ochthebiini (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae, Ochthebiinae)"; Systematic Entomology, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12318.This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.El post print de este trabajo se encuentra en acceso abierto en http://hdl.handle.net/10261/168475.Postprint article is available in open acces at http://hdl.handle.net/10261/168475Ochthebiinae, with ca. 650 species distributed worldwide, are the second most speciose subfamily of the aquatic beetle family Hydraenidae. They are the ecologically most diverse subfamily, with terrestrial species as well as species in almost all types of aquatic habitats, including hypersaline waters. Ochthebiinae include the tribes Ochtheosini (four species in three genera) and Ochthebiini. We provide here the first comprehensive phylogeny of the tribe Ochthebiini, based on 188 species and four subspecies from most genera, subgenera and species groups. We obtained sequence data for a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear gene fragments including the 5’ and 3’ ends of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, the 5’ end of 16S RNA plus the Leucine tRNA transfer plus 5’ end of NADH dehydrogenase subunit I, and internal fragments of the large and small ribosomal units. The analyses with maximum likelihood and Bayesian probabilities consistently recovered a generally well supported phylogeny, with most currently accepted taxa and species groups as monophyletic. We provide a new classification of the tribe based on our phylogenetic results, with three genera: Meropathus Enderlein, Ochthebius Leach and Protochthebius Perkins. Meropathus in its new sense includes five subgenera in addition to Meropathus s.str.: (1) M. (Hygrotympanogaster) Perkins comb.n.; (2) M. (Plesiotympanogaster) Perkins comb.n.; (3) M. (Topotympanogaster) Perkins comb.n. (the last three transferred from Tympanogaster); (4) M. (Tympallopatrum) Perkins comb.n.; and (5) M. (Tympanogaster) Janssens comb.n. (both currently considered as genera). The genus Ochthebius is here divided into nine subgenera in addition to Ochthebius s.str.: (1) O. (Angiochthebius) Jäch & Ribera; (2) O. (Asiobates) Thomson; (3) O. (Aulacochthebius) Kuwert; (4) O. (Cobalius) Rey; (5) O. (Enicocerus) Stephens; (6) O. (Gymnanthelius) Perkins comb.n.; (7) O. (Gymnochthebius) Orchymont comb.n.; (8) O. (Hughleechia) Perkins comb.n.; and (9) O. (Micragasma) Sahlberg. Within Ochthebius s.str., 17 species groups are proposed, five of them newly established (3, 9, 11, 13 and 16): (1) andraei; (2) atriceps; (3) corrugatus; (4) foveolatus; (5) kosiensis; (6) lobicollis; (7) marinus; (8) metallescens; (9) nitidipennis; (10) notabilis; (11) peisonis; (12) punctatus; (13) quadricollis; (14) rivalis; (15) strigosus; (16) sumatrensis; and (17) vandykei. We could not obtain sequences of any species of Protochthebius, which is therefore maintained as a distinct genus of Ochthebiini. We elevated to species rank two subspecies of Ochthebius: O. fallaciosus Ganglbauer stat.n. (former subspecies of O. viridis Peyron) and O. deletus Rey stat.rest. (former subspecies of O. subpictus Wollaston).A.V. has a FPI-MINECO PhD grant from the Spanish Government. This work has been partly funded by project CGL2013-48950-C2 (AEI/FEDER, UE) to I.R.N

Thermal physiology of the marine rockpool Ochthebius (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae) and its relationship with geographical range

Poster presented at the Eight International Symposium on Molecular Insect Science, held 7-10th July 2019 in Barcelona (Spain).Peer reviewe

Parallel decay of vision genes in subterranean water beetles

In the framework of neutral theory of molecular evolution, genes specific to the development and function of eyes in subterranean animals living in permanent darkness are expected to evolve by relaxed selection, ulti- mately becoming pseudogenes. However, definitive empirical evidence for the role of neutral processes in the loss of vision over evolutionary time remains controversial. In previous studies, we characterized an assemblage of independently-evolved water beetle (Dytiscidae) species from a subterranean archipelago in Western Australia, where parallel vision and eye loss have occurred. Using a combination of transcriptomics and exon capture, we present evidence of parallel coding sequence decay, resulting from the accumulation of frameshift mutations and premature stop codons, in eight phototransduction genes (arrestins, opsins, ninaC and transient receptor potential channel genes) in 32 subterranean species in contrast to surface species, where these genes have open reading frames. Our results provide strong evidence to support neutral evolutionary processes as a major contributing factor to the loss of phototransduction genes in subterranean animals, with the ultimate fate being the irreversible loss of a light detection system.Barbara L. Langille, Simon M. Tierney, Terry Bertozzi, Perry G. Beasley-Hall, Tessa M. Bradford, Erinn P. Fagan-Jeffries, Josephine Hyde, Remko Leijs, Matthew Richardson, Kathleen M. Saint, Danielle N. Stringer, Adrian Villastrigo, William F. Humphreys, Andrew D. Austin, Steven J.B. Coope