Spatio-temporal genetic variation in sympatric and allopatric Mediterranean Cicada species (Hemiptera, Cicadidae)

Abstract

Cicada barbara (Stål) and Cicada orni L. are two Mediterranean cicadas, very similar in morphology, that produce distinct acoustic mating signals and that have partially overlapping distribution ranges in the Iberian Peninsula, occurring in sympatry in several locations. In the present study, six microsatellite loci were analysed in C. barbara, four of which were also analysed in C. orni. Geographical and temporal genetic variation in these species was studied. No evidence of hybridization was found, enabling us to infer that the isolating barriers between these species are efficient. Partitioning of geographic variation in each species, revealed the following patterns: Iberian Peninsula and Northwestern African populations of C. barbara showed higher differentiation between than within each region, supporting C. barbara subspecific taxonomy (C. barbara lusitanica in the Iberian Peninsula and C. barbara barbara in Northwestern Africa) and highlighting isolation coincident with the presence of physical barriers to gene‐flow; differentiation between populations of C. orni from both sides of the Pyrenees was very low, and this mountain range may not constitute a significant barrier for the dispersal of this species; Greek populations of C. orni were found to be highly differentiated from Western European populations; and no pattern of isolation‐by‐distance was found in either species within the Iberian Peninsula. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 96, 249–265.

New Mitochondrial and Nuclear Evidences Support Recent Demographic Expansion and an Atypical Phylogeographic Pattern in the Spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (Hemiptera, Aphrophoridae)

“…The expansion was followed by a slight differentiation in Italy from the Balkans. The COI haplotype network shows that the dispersal of haplotypes from the Iberian Peninsula to the north of Italy has also occurred, maybe either crossing mountains or along the Mediterranean coast of Spain and France as suggested for Cicada orni [52]. Although a weak flier, it is also possible that P. spumarius dispersed over the sea facilitated by wind (anemohydrochoric dispersal) since this mode of dispersal has already been observed in this species [20].…”

Analysis of the population structure ofMacrolophus pygmaeus(Rambur) (Hemiptera: Miridae) in the Palaearctic region using microsatellite markers

“…Seabra et al. () argued that the lower microsatellite variability and heterozygosity of Cicada orni L. (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in the Aegean islands compared with mainland Greek was possibly due to a reduced gene flow and bottlenecks during the process of colonization of the islands. When just a small numbers of individuals takes part in the colonization of new areas, the genetic variability of the founder population is expected to be lower than the original one (Zygouridis et al.…”

“…(Hemiptera: Cicadidae)(Seabra et al. ), among many other species of insects. Microsatellite markers have been developed for other mirid species (Perera et al.…”

A spatial analysis of the ecology and morphology of cicadas in the Pauropsalta annulata species complex (Hemiptera: Cicadidae)

“…Only a few other studies on cicadas have examined geographical variation across the distributions of the taxa under investigation (e.g. Alexander & Moore, 1962;Marshall & Cooley, 2000;Sueur & Puissant, 2002;Gogala & Trilar, 2004;Seabra, Quartau & Bruford, 2009). The cicadas of the remaining nine song types currently included within P. annulata exhibit obvious differences in morphology and calling song, and await formal description.…”