The Philippine islands are one of the key biodiversity hotspots in the Indo-Pacific area. Knowledge of moss-inhabiting flea beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae), a diverse and ecologically and morphologically enigmatic group in the Philippines is described. Six species from the Philippines are recorded, belonging to three genera: Benedictus luzonicus Sprecher-Uebersax et al., 2009 (recorded from the Philippines previously), Ivalia antennatasp. nov., I. caligulatasp. nov. and I. postfasciata (Chen, 1934), comb. nov. (transferred from Chabria Jacoby, 1887), Cangshanaltica mindanaoensissp. nov., and C. luzonicasp. nov. Cox1 barcode sequences of Ivalia antennata and Cangshanaltica mindanaoensis are presented. Biogeography and diversity of moss-inhabiting flea beetles in the Philippines are discussed.

Moss‐inhabiting flea beetles form a very diverse and understudied ecological group of leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) characterized by cryptic lifestyle, loss of flight ability and feeding on mosses as both adults and larvae. We present the first DNA‐based study of the phylogenetic position of moss‐inhabiting flea beetle genera Ivalia Jacoby and Cangshanaltica Konstantinov et al., based on sequences of two mitochondrial and three nuclear genes. We confirm that both genera are members of the monophyletic Chabria group, along with Chabria Jacoby, Parathrylea Duvivier, Chabriosoma Chen and Sutrea Baly. Moss‐inhabiting species form at least three independent lineages within the Chabria group, indicating multiple parallel origin of the association with mosses within the clade. We reveal the monophyly of Cangshanaltica and confirm its separate generic status from Ivalia. Ivalia is revealed as polyphyletic, consisting of at least two unrelated moss‐inhabiting lineages. In contrast, the externally similar moss‐ and leaf‐litter inhabiting genera Mniophila Stephens, Adamastoraltica Biondi et al. and Clavicornaltica Scherer are not closely related to the Chabria group. Our study specifically focused on the moss‐inhabiting flea beetles of Taiwan. We reveal that the Taiwanese fauna is a result of four independent colonizations of the island: one from China (Cangshanaltica) and three from the Philippines (three lineages morphologically assigned to Ivalia). Two of these lineages (Cangshanaltica and the core Ivalia) radiated in Taiwan and gave rise to the majority of modern Taiwanese species. The evolutionary history of Cangshanaltica and its diversification in China are also discussed.

No abstract

The Philippine archipelago harbours a remarkable diversity of harvestmen, with respect to both taxonomy and complexity of biogeographic origins. Among the armoured harvestmen (suborder Laniatores), six families of distantly related groups occur in this archipelago. Here, we describe a new species of the family Tithaeidae, Tithaeus odysseus sp. nov., discovered during a collecting campaign on the island of Mindanao. The description of this species expands the known distribution of the family and demonstrates another exception to the zoogeographic boundary known as Huxley’s Line which putatively separates the biota of the Philippines (excluding the Palawan island group) from the Sunda Shelf biota. Given the coincident distributions of Tithaeidae and the mite harvestman family Stylocellidae (Cyphophthalmi), a group renowned for its poor dispersal ability, we inferred phylogenetic relationships and divergence times of the Philippines lineages of both families by using a comprehensive molecular dating analysis of all Opiliones. The internal phylogeny of Tithaeidae mirrored the biogeography of Philippine Stylocellidae, showing a close affinity between the Philippine and Bornean species. Molecular dating showed contemporaneous colonisation of Mindanao by both families in the Cretaceous. We infer these patterns to reflect faunal connections between the southern Philippines and Borneo via the Zamboanga Peninsula. To render the genus Tithaeus monophyletic, we synonymise Metatithaeus with Tithaeus (new synonymy).