Abstract
The taxonomy of stag beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) remains challenging, mainly due to the sexual dimorphism and the strong allometry in males. Such conjecture confounds taxonomic based conservation efforts that are urgently needed due to numerous threats to stag beetle biodiversity. Molecular tools could help solve the problem of identification of the different recognized taxa in the “Lucanus cervus complex” and in some related Palaearctic species. We investigated the potential use of a 670 bp region at the 3’ end of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) for barcoding purposes (different from the standard COI barcoding region). Well resolved species and subspecies were L. tetraodon, L. cervusakbesianus, L. c. laticornis, as well as the two eastern Asian outgroup taxa L. formosanus and L. hermani. Conversely, certain taxa could not be distinguished from each other based on K2P-distances and tree topologies: L. c. fabiani / L. (P.) barbarossa, L. c. judaicus / an unknown Lucanus species, L. c. cervus / L. c. turcicus / L. c. pentaphyllus / L. (P.) macrophyllus / L. ibericus. The relative roles of phenotypic plasticity, recurrent hybridisation and incomplete lineage sorting underlying taxonomic and phylogenetic discordances are discussed.
Highlights
We investigated the potential use of a 670 bp region at the 3’ end of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) for barcoding purposes
Lucanidae Latreille, 1804 is a family of Coleoptera showing in most species pronounced sexual dimorphism and strong external morphological allometry in males
The taxa fabiani and pentaphyllus Reiche, 1853 are listed as synonyms of L. c. cervus by Bartolozzi and Sprecher-Uebersax (2006), but fabiani could well be considered as a valid species according to Boucher while pentaphyllus may represent a small form of L. cervus with five lamellate clubs, a character that can be found in L. c. cervus
Summary
Lucanidae Latreille, 1804 is a family of Coleoptera showing in most species pronounced sexual dimorphism and strong external morphological allometry in males. The species of the Holarctic and Oriental distributed genus Lucanus Scopoli, 1763 are renowned for the striking appearance of the males. With their large body size and prominent mandibles, the male stag beetles are very popular among amateur entomologists and as terrarium pets, mainly in Japan. Sexual dimorphism and size variation complicate the taxonomy (Didier and Séguy 1953, Clark 1977, Harvey and Gange 2006), as does the lack of informative phenotypic characters among larvae. Their classification has changed over time and is still under discussion. In this study we focus on taxa of the Lucanus species in the western Palaearctic
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