The relationship between Otiorhynchus ukrainicus (Korotyaev, 1984), Otiorhynchus rotundus (Marseul, 1872) and Otiorhynchus smreczynskii (Cmoluch, 1968): a hybrid speciation reconstruction

Abstract

Otiorhynchus rotundus (Marseul, 1872) and Otiorhynchus smreczynskii (Cmoluch, 1968: a hybrid speciation reconstruction. Folia Biologica (Kraków) 72: 16-28. Otiorhynchus smreczynskii (Cmoluch, 1968) is a ubiquitous weevil species. Despite being common, the species is relatively unknown and most research has focused on its role as a plant pest. In our work, we compared O. smreczynskii and the closely related Otiorhynchus rotundus (Marseul, 1872) and Otiorhynchus ukrainicus (Korotyaev, 1984) based on molecular data. This was the first time that the molecular data of O. ukrainicus has been obtained. We used mitochondrial CO1 and the nuclear markers CAS and ArgK. Based on this data, we created phylogenetic trees, calculated genetic distances and conducted species delimitation using the PTP method. We also analysed the allozymes, proving that all the studied specimens of O. smreczynskii are hybrid triploids. The lower interspecific divergence (COI: 0.49%) indicates a recent speciation event. These results show that with a high probability, O. smreczynskii originated from O. rotundus and O. ukrainicus.