Phylogeographical patterns of a generalist acorn weevil: insight into the biogeographical history of broadleaved deciduous and evergreen forests.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Climatic changes during glacial periods have had a major influence on the recent evolutionary history of living organisms, even in temperate forests on islands, where the land was not covered with ice sheets. We investigated the phylogeographical patterns of the weevil Curculio sikkimensis (Curculionidae), a generalist seed predator of Fagaceae plants living in both deciduous oak and evergreen forests of Japan. Its genetic structure was compared to that of another host-specific seed predator, C. hilgendorfi, inhabiting only evergreen forests.

Results

We examined 921 bp of mitochondrial DNA for 115 individuals collected from 33 populations of C. sikkimensis from 11 plant species of three genera, Quercus, Lithocarpus, and Castanopsis. An analysis of molecular varian

SUBMITTER: Aoki K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2691738 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature