A phylogeny of Xanthopygina (Insecta, Coleoptera) reveals major lineages and the origin of myrmecophily

Abstract

Xanthopygina is a group of colourful, neotropical rove beetles (Staphylinidae) comprising 28 genera and more than 350 species. While many genera are found on rotting fruits, carrion, dung and mushrooms, several taxa have evolved associations with social insects. Previous phylogenetic analyses have used only a subset of genera and were based solely on molecular data. In this paper, we performed Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses of all known genera, including three potentially new genera, based on molecular (4,797 bp) and morphological (91) characters. Our results reaffirmed the monophyly of the subtribe and divided it into eight major lineages: the Elmas, Gastrisus, Isanopus, Ocyolinus, Plociopterus, Smilax, Trigonopselaphus and Xanthopygus groups. We hypothesized that myrmecophily evolved once in the common ancestor of the Smilax group, and that sphecophily possibly evolved twice, in the Trigonopselaphus and Xanthopygus groups.

Lendatus, a new genus of Xanthopygina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae) with description of three new species

“…4B). Lendatus was recovered as the sister group to Isanopus (Chatzimanolis, 2014; Chatzimanolis & Brunke, 2019) and the sister group relationship is supported by the following morphological characteristics (besides the molecular data supporting that relationship): coarse punctures impressed in flange at posterior angle of pronotum (Fig. 2); and lateral area of basal transverse carina on sternum 3 sinuate.…”

“…Diagnosis . Lendatus belongs to the Isanopus group of genera (see Chatzimanolis & Brunke, 2019 for characters differentiating all genera in the Isanopus group) based on the following morphological characteristics: basal transverse carina on sternum 3 acutely pointed medially; lack of dense meshed microsculpture on sterna 5–7 (Fig. 4C); antennomeres 8–10 quadrate or elongate (Fig.…”

“…Text within brackets [ ] is explanatory and was not included in the original label. Generic description was extracted from the matrix in Chatzimanolis & Brunke (2019) with addition of a few other characters. I produced maps using the online program SimpleMappr (Shorthouse, 2010).…”

“…Xanthopygina is a diverse group of mostly neotropical rove beetles that includes (before the publication of this paper) 29 genera. In the latest phylogenetic analyses of the subtribe, Chatzimanolis & Brunke (2019) were able to examine all genera of Xanthopygina and identified the major lineages of the subtribe, One of them was the Isanopus group of genera, which included four genera: Zackfalinus Chatzimanolis (Chatzimanolis, 2012) as the sister group of Peripus Chatzimanolis & Hightower (Chatzimanolis & Hightower, 2019); identified in the phylogeny paper as genus 5), and Isanopus Sharp (Chatzimanolis, 2008) as the sister group of genus 2. That genus 2 is described in this paper as the new genus Lendatus Chatzimanolis and includes three new species.…”

A new apterous rove beetle genus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) from the Northern Andes with an assessment of its phylogenetic position

“…To test whether these three taxa form a monophyletic group and to decipher their phylogenetic position in Xanthopygina, we included these taxa into the data matrix of Chatzimanolis & Brunke (2019) and added three morphological characters. The results of these new phylogenetic analyses are presented in this paper along with the formal descriptions of a new genus and three new species.…”