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Molecular Evidence for an Old World Origin of Galapagos and Caribbean Band-Winged Grasshoppers (Acrididae: Oedipodinae: Sphingonotus)
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Molecular Evidence for an Old World Origin of Galapagos and Caribbean Band-Winged Grasshoppers (Acrididae: Oedipodinae: Sphingonotus)

Martin Husemann, Jan Christian Habel, Suk Namkung, Axel Hochkirch, Daniel Otte and Patrick D. Danley
PloS one, v 10(2), pp e0118208-e0118208
18 Feb 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118208
PMID: 25692768
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118208&type=printableView
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open
url
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118208View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology Science & Technology - Other Topics
Patterns of colonization and diversification on islands provide valuable insights into evolutionary processes. Due to their unique geographic position and well known history, the Galapagos Islands are an important model system for evolutionary studies. Here we investigate the evolutionary history of a winged grasshopper genus to infer its origin and pattern of colonization in the Galapagos archipelago. The grasshopper genus Sphingonotus has radiated extensively in the Palaearctic and many species are endemic to islands. In the New World, the genus is largely replaced by the genus Trimerotropis. Oddly, in the Caribbean and on the Galapagos archipelago, two species of Sphingonotus are found, which has led to the suggestion that these might be the result of anthropogenic translocations from Europe. Here, we test this hypothesis using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences from a broad sample of Sphingonotini and Trimerotropini species from the Old World and New World. The genetic data show two distinct genetic clusters representing the New World Trimerotropini and the Old World Sphingonotini. However, the Sphingonotus species from Galapagos and the Caribbean split basally within the Old World Sphingonotini lineage. The Galapagos and Caribbean species appear to be related to Old World taxa, but are not the result of recent anthropogenic translocations as revealed by divergence time estimates. Distinct genetic lineages occur on the four investigated Galapagos Islands, with deep splits among them compared to their relatives from the Palaearctic. A scenario of a past wider distribution of Sphingonotus in the New World with subsequent extinction on the mainland and replacement by Trimerotropis might explain the disjunct distribution.

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10 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Evolutionary Biology
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