Dissecting natural hybridisation in longhorned beetles through an integrative approach: Further proof of reticulate evolution in Dorcadionini (Cerambycidae, Lamiinae)

Abstract

This work demonstrates for the first time using molecular markers alongside chromosomes and the intermediate phenotype that a specimen of Dorcadion is an accidental first‐generation hybrid. The analyses were based on two mitochondrial and five nuclear molecular markers. While analysing the putative parental taxa of the hybrid, it was revealed that even Dorcadion lugubre lugubre Kraatz is likely a hybridogenic taxon. Coincidentally, a new lead was discovered concerning the parental taxa of Dorcadion aethiops (Scopoli), already known as a hybridogenic species. This new evidence of hybridisation adds to the recent publications to strengthen the hypothesis that, in Dorcadionini, this phenomenon is relatively frequent, and speciation is often reticulate: New taxa can appear through introgressive hybridisation, explaining in part the extreme species richness of the group.