The evolution and age of populations of Scaphinotus petersi Roeschke on Arizona Sky Islands (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Cychrini)

By

Ober, Karen
Matthews, Brian
Ferrieri, Abigail
Kuhn, Sonia E

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2011

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

147

Pages

183-197

Subjects

carabid ground beetles , divergence dates , phylogeography

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.147.2024

 

Abstract

Populations of the ground beetle Scaphinotus petersi are isolated in subalpine conifer forest habitats on mountain ranges or Sky Islands in southeastern Arizona. Previous work on this species has suggested these populations have been isolated since the last post-glacial maximum times as warming caused this cool adapted species to retreat to high elevations. To test this hypothesis, we inferred the phylogeny from mitochondrial DNA sequence data from several Arizona Sky Island populations of S. petersi and estimated the divergence time of the currently isolated populations. We found two major clades of S. petersi, an eastern clade and a western group. Our results indicated most mountain ranges form clades except the Huachucas, which are polyphyletic and the Santa Catalinas, which are paraphyletic. We estimated the Pinaleño population is much older than the last glacial maximum, but the Huachuca and Pinal populations may have been fragmented from the Santa Catalina population since the post-glacial maximum times.