A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Scarabaeinae (dung beetles)

An old adaptive radiation of forest dung beetles in Madagascar

“…Dung beetles play an important role in many ecological processes, especially in nutrient cycling and fertilization and aeration of soils, but also in seed dispersal and the dynamics of some parasite species (Andresen, 2002a,b;Mittal, 1993). The phylogenetic relationships within Scarabaeidae have been recently studied, but they remain largely unresolved Scholtz, 1995, 1998;Cabrero-Sanudo and Zardoya, 2004;Monaghan et al, 2007;Philips et al, 2004;Smith et al, 2006;Villalba et al, 2002). There is only one study of the Malagasy dung beetles (Orsini et al, 2007), examining the molecular evolution of the two main groups of dung beetles in Madagascar.…”

Phylogeny of the African ball-rolling dung beetle genus Epirinus Reiche (Coleoptera:Scarabaeidae:Scarabaeinae)

“…Philips et al (2004) used 200 morphological characters in their analysis which included representative genera from all 12 tribes and concluded that the ancestral Scarabaeinae was a tunneller and that rolling has evolved independently a number of times. Monaghan et al (2007) performed an extensive molecular phylogenetic analysis and came to several of the same general conclusions as those of Philips et al (2004). One of these was that the basal extant dung beetle groups are African genera currently placed in the Canthonini and Dichotomiini.…”

“…Sequence data were generated from two mitochondrial genes -cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and 16S ribosomal RNA (16S rRNA) -a portion of the nuclear rRNA large subunit -28S (28S rRNA) domain 2 -and the CPSase region of Carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase-aspartate transcarbamoylase-dihydroorotase (CAD). These gene regions were chosen as they have been shown in previous studies to be phylogenetically informative in the Coleoptera and other insect groups (Sole et al 2005;Forgie et al 2006;Orsini et al 2007;Monaghan et al 2007;Wahlberg and Wheat 2008;Wild and Maddison 2008;Sole and Scholtz 2010). Muscle tissue from the metathoracic femur was used for extraction from at least three individuals per species wherever possible, using the Roche High Pure PCR Template Preparation Kit (Roche, Penzberg, Germany).…”

“…Recent phylogenetic studies have postulated that in Scarabaeinae rolling balls of dung evolved independently several times (Philips et al 2004;Monaghan et al 2007). Sole and Scholtz (2010) tried to "tease apart the different taxa of tunnellers and rollers" concluding that within the African Canthonini and Dichotomiini Epirinus appeared to be the most basal of all rollers.…”

“…Although the global Scarabaeinae dung beetle fauna is divided into 12 tribes (Hanski and Cambefort 1991), some of these divisions lack phylogenetic support (Medina et al 2003;Philips et al 2004;Monaghan et al 2007;Davis et al 2008;Sole and Scholtz 2010). The current classification is considered to be based on two large 'monophyletic' groups (Cambefort 1991): 1), one containing six tribes of "tunnellers" with Dichotomiini being basal; and 2), the other consisting of six tribes of "rollers"…”