Molecular phylogeny of the squeak beetles, a family with disjunct Palearctic-Australian range

Abstract

Many higher groups of plants and animals show distributional patterns which have been shown or have at some point in time been suggested to be correlated with plate tectonics and the ancient supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana. Here, we study the family of squeak beetles (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Hygrobiidae) and its enigmatic distribution pattern, with one species in the Western Palearctic, one in China and four in Australia. We present a molecular phylogeny including five of the six extant species, showing the monophyly of the Australian radiation. We use a molecular clock approach, which indicates that Hygrobiidae is an ancient group dating back to the breakup of Pangea and discuss the possibility of vicariance as explanation for its current distribution.