Genetic variation corroborates subspecific delimitation in the Namib fog-basking beetle, Onymacris unguicularis (Haag) (Tenebrionidae, Coleoptera).

ABSTRACT: The fog-basking beetle, Onymacris unguicularis (Haag, 1875), is currently listed as a polytypic form comprising two subspecies. A flightless substrate specialist, the beetleis endemic to vegetationless dunes in the Namib, where southern populations constitute the nominate subspecies, O. u. unguicularis, and populations some 300 km to the north compose O. u. schulzeae Penrith, 1984. Their taxonomic descriptions are based on minor differences in pronotal and prosternal shape, and the phylogenetic validity of these subspecies has yet to be ascertained. Here we reassess the polytypic status of O. unguicularis by (1) examining diagnostic phenotypic characters in conjunction with a geometric morphometric analysis, and (2) conducting phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. Our resul

SUBMITTER: Lamb T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3837484 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature