Conservation & Evolutionary Biology Lab
 
Department of Entomology,
National Taiwan University

Phylogeography

 

In addition to the function of aposematic colourarion, we also focused on phylogeographic studies of the weevils. The second topic of my study was to reconstruct the colonization history of P. orbifer complex, which distributes on small islets of nothern Philippines (Batanes and Babuyan Islands), Taiwan, and extends to southern Ryukyu. Phylogeny of this complex species was reconstructed with multiple molecular markers, indicating a complicated colonization hisotry with multiple northward and southward dispersal events among Taiwan–Luzon volcanic belt around one million years ago(Tseng et al. 2018). Two neighbouring P. orbifer populations on small islands of Taiwan–Luzon volcanic belt can be identified as distinct species after combining multiple lines of evidences, including morphological morphomatrix (body size and shape, genital shape, coloration and cuticular scale), molecular markers (four genes and restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, RAD-seq), and ecological differentiation (host range and distribution)(Chen et al. 2017).

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References

    Chen, Y.-T., H.-Y. Tseng, M.-L. Jeng, Y. C. Su, W.-S. Huang, and C.-P. Lin. 2017. Integrated species delimitation and conservaiton implications of an endangered weevil Pachyrhynchus sonani (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Green and Orchid Islands of Taiwan. Systematic Entomology 42:796-813.

    Tseng, H.-Y., W.-S. Huang, M.-L. Jeng, R. J. T. Villanueva, O. M. Nuñeza, and C.-P. Lin. 2018. Complex inter-island colonization and peripatric founder speciation promote diversification of flightless Pachyrhynchus weevils in the Taiwan-Luzon volcanic belt. Journal of Biogeography 45:89-100.