Thermal niche evolution and geographical range expansion in a species complex of western Mediterranean diving beetles.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Species thermal requirements are one of the principal determinants of their ecology and biogeography, although our understanding of the interplay between these factors is limited by the paucity of integrative empirical studies. Here we use empirically collected thermal tolerance data in combination with molecular phylogenetics/phylogeography and ecological niche modelling to study the evolution of a clade of three western Mediterranean diving beetles, the Agabus brunneus complex.

Results

The preferred mitochondrial DNA topology recovered A. ramblae (North Africa, east Iberia and Balearic islands) as paraphyletic, with A. brunneus (widespread in the southwestern Mediterranean) and A. rufulus (Corsica and Sardinia) nested within it, with an estimated origin between

SUBMITTER: Hidalgo-Galiana A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4180321 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature