Abstract
Longitarsus Latreille (Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini) is a very large genus of phytophagous insects, with more than 700 species distributed in all zoogeographical regions. Patterns of host use have been a central topic in phytophagous insect research. In this study a first assessment is provided to test the hypothesis that host-plant association is phylogenetically conserved in Western Palaearctic Longitarsus species. Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods were used to infer a phylogeny based on DNA sequence data from two mitochondrial genes from 52 Longitarsus species from the Western Palaearctic. In agreement with the host phylogenetic conservatism hypothesis, a strict association between most of the recovered clades and specific plant families was found, except for species associated with Boraginaceae. Low phylogenetic resolution at deep nodes limited the evaluation of whether closely related Longitarsus clades are associated with the same plant family or to closely related plant families.
Highlights
Longitarsus Latreille, 1829 is a mega-diverse genus of phytophagous insects and the most speciose among flea beetles (Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini) with more than 700 known species
Among the 52 Longitarsus species used in our molecular phylogenetic analyses (Table 1), 49 are monophagous or oligophagous; L. atricillus and L. aeneicollis are polyphagous, while no information is available about host plants of L. bedelii
We provided first evidence that host-use patterns are phylogenetically constrained in Western Palaearctic Longitarsus
Summary
Longitarsus Latreille, 1829 is a mega-diverse genus of phytophagous insects and the most speciose among flea beetles (Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini) with more than 700 known species. It is widespread through all zoogeographical regions (Furth 2007, Biondi and D’Alessandro 2010, 2012, Döberl 2010, Prathapan and Viraktamath 2011, Reid 2017, unpublished data). Longitarsus is ecologically diversified with specialized feeders, monophagous or oligophagous (Schoonhoven et al 2005), on different angiosperm families. The monophyly of Longitarsus is accepted based on molecular evidence (Gómez-Rodríguez et al 2015, Nie et al 2018). Members of the genus are recognized mainly by the length of first metatarsomere, exceeding half-length of hind tibia, along with confuse elytral punctuation and absence of dorsal pubescence (Biondi and D’Alessandro 2012)
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