Abstract
We investigate how late Cenozoic orogenics and climatic change might have influenced the history of taxon diversification and current species ranges of an endemic, Afrotropical, insect genus. Diastellopalpus van Lansberge is a near basally-derived taxon in the dung beetle tribe Onthophagini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) that has diversified into 32 known species primarily centred on intertropical forests. Basal dichotomies in both published and re-analysed phylogenies divide the species into clades that are geographically centred either to the east or west of the south-east highlands that underwent uplift from the Miocene. There is broad climatic overlap between many of the species but clear separation along a minimum spanning tree in ordinal space where they are divided into taxa with either lowland or highland centres of distribution. Observed spatial distributions of six defined species groups mostly differ from predicted climatic ranges, presumably as a result of historical constraints on species dispersal. A trend from dominance of montane or wet lowland forest associations in species lineages derived from more basal nodes (Groups A–C) to dominance of drier upland forest and moist woodland associations in species lineages derived from a more terminal node (Groups D–F) is perhaps linked to the stepped trend to cooler, dryer climate in the late Cenozoic. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 99, 407–423.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.