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

Abstract

Abstract. Recent phylogenetic analyses have pointed to the dung beetle genus Epirinus as the putative African ancestral roller group. Consequently, we tested the roller status of species in the genus with observational studies and constructed a molecular phylogeny based on partial sequences of two mitochondrial and two nuclear genes for 16 of 29 species. Tested species were confirmed to be dung rollers. Monophyly of the genus was confirmed, lending support to the synonymy of the wingless genus Endroedyantus with Epirinus. Moreover, the phylogenetic hypothesis was found to have a similar topology with a previously published one based on morphological data. A combined molecular/morphology analysis showed congruence between the molecular and morphological datasets. The loss of flight in some species and estimated divergence dates within Epirinus are discussed.

Landscape genetics indicate recently increased habitat fragmentation in African forest‐associated chafers

“…Frequent natural climate fluctuations that led to repeated forest retreats and expansions in southern Africa (Deacon, ; Eeley et al ., ) might have acted as speciation pump (Terborgh, ; Voelker et al ., ; McDonald & Daniels, ) producing a unique and diverse flora and fauna. Besides Pleophylla , other highly diverse insect groups like canthonine dung beetles (Canthonini), which bear many flightless taxa, exclusively occur in South African forest remains (Davis et al ., ; Medina & Scholtz, ; Deschodt & Scholtz, ; Mlambo et al ., ). Likewise, considerable diversity of flightless species is found in grassland biomes (e.g., Pope, ; Naskrecki et al ., ), indicating a certain stability of both biomes in the region.…”

“…The Miocene is known for a general cooling and aridification (Zachos et al ., ) and for the onset of intensified diversification in Pleophylla (Eberle et al ., ) and other forest‐associated organisms (Measey & Tolley, ; Mlambo et al ., ; Menegon et al ., ; Eberle et al ., ). This was argued to be attributable to fragmentation and isolation of previously widespread species in forest remains (Maley, ).…”

“…Furthermore, the interaction of general long‐term climatic stability since the Miocene and complex microclimates was suggested to be the driver of the exceptional plant diversity in the Cape region of southern Africa (Schnitzler et al ., ) which might also apply for faunal elements. Highly regional forest endemics, like they are for instance found in many flightless and little vagile dung beetles (Davis et al ., ; Medina & Scholtz, ; Deschodt & Scholtz, ; Mlambo et al ., ), rose chafers (Šípek & Malec, ), or long‐horned grasshoppers (Naskrecki et al ., ; Samways et al ., ), might derive from such past subdivisions. However, in most cases, these are very rare species which are reported from only a tiny fraction of existing forest patches.…”

Systematics of the dung beetle tribe Sisyphini Mulsant (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) inferred from a molecular phylogeny and biogeography of southern African species

“…Still, most recent phylogenies using either morphological or molecular data have consistently recovered a sister relationship between Sisyphini and Epirinus (i.e., Philips et al, 2004;Monaghan et al, 2007;Mlambo et al, 2015;Tarasov & Génier, 2015;. Indeed, in their large-scale molecular phylogenetic analysis of Scarabaeinae, Sisyphini is distributed largely throughout the Afrotropical region, with some species in the Palaearctic and Oriental regions (Davis et al, 2016b).…”

Two new species and one new record for the genus Copris (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) from Vietnam with a key to Vietnamese species

“…In order to avoid taxonomic confusion between Copris species, an integrated taxonomic approach, combining morphological and molecular data, as well as a detailed species determination key are needed. During the course of our examination of dung beetles that were collected in limestone ecosystems in two spatially separated nature re-tion were Cox1 (5'-CAACATTTATTTTGATTTTTTGG-3') and Cox2 (Wirta et al, 2008;Mlambo et al, 2015). Thermal cycling parameters had a denaturation phase of 95°C for 32 s, extension at 72°C for 2 min and an annealing temperature of 50°C for 36 s. The conditions were cycled 35 times.…”