Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Molecular phylogeny of the dung beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot


Affiliations
1 Department of Zoology, Central University of Kerala, Periya 671 316, India
 

The tribal and generic-level phylogeny of Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) dung beetles have been often debated globally. However, fauna from India have not been a part of these analyses due to lack of data. We used partial sequences of 16S mtDNA gene of dung beetles collected from different parts of the Western Ghats, India, to examine (i) the tribal positions of Onthophagini, Onitini and Oniticellini, and (ii) the phylo­genetic position of different genera of Onthophagini. We found that Oniticellini nested within Onthophagini, suggesting the invalid position of Oniticellini. The non-Onthophagus genera of Onthophagini – Caccobius, Cleptocaccobius, Milichus – nested within Onthophagus, suggesting that these three genera might be invalid and could be subgenera of Onthophagus. Onitini formed a separate clade in the phylogenetic tree. The results suggest for tribal-level reclassification of dung beetles, as noted in previous studies. The present study may enrich the molecular data of the Indian dung beetles, which are currently lacking.

Keywords

Biodiversity hotspot, dung beetles, molecular phylogeny.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Schoolmeesters, P., World Scarabaeidae database. In Catalogue of Life Checklist (eds Bánki, O. et al.), Version 2021-13-12, 2021; https://doi.org/10.48580/d4tm-38g.

  • Carvalho, R. L., Andersen, A. N., Anjos, D. V., Pacheco, R., Chagas, L. and Vasconcelos, H. L., Understanding what bioindicators are actually indicating: linking disturbance responses to ecological traits of dung beetles and ants. Ecol. Indic., 2020, 108, 105764.

  • Monaghan, M. T., Inward, D. J., Hunt, T. and Vogler, A. P., A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Scarabaeinae (dung beetles). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 2007, 45, 674–692.

  • Asha, G., Manoj, K., Megha, P. P. and Sinu, P. A., Spatiotemporal effects on dung beetle activities in island forests–home garden matrix in a tropical village landscape. Sci. Rep., 2021, 11, 17398.

  • Salomão, R. P., Favila, M. E. and González-Tokman, D., Spatial and temporal changes in the dung beetle diversity of a protected, but fragmented, landscape of the northernmost Neotropical rainforest. Ecol. Indic., 2020, 111, 105968.

  • Sole, C. L. and Scholtz, C. H., Did dung beetles arise in Africa? A phylogenetic hypothesis based on five gene regions. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 2020, 56, 631–641.

  • Davis, A. L. V., Scholtz, C. H. and Sole, C. L., Biogeographical and co-evolutionary origins of Scarabaeine dung beetles: Mesozoic vicariance versus Cenozoic dispersal and dinosaur versus mammal dung. Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 2017, 120, 258–273.

  • Davis, A. L. V., Scholtz, C. H. and Philips, T. K., Historical biogeography of Scarabaeinae dung beetles. J. Biogeogr., 2002, 29, 1217–1256.

  • Gunter, N. L., Weir, T. A., Slipinksi, A., Bocak, L. and Cameron, S. L., If dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) arose in association with dinosaurs, did they also suffer a mass co-extinction at the K–Pg boundary? PLoS ONE, 2016, 11, e0153570.

  • Tarasov, S. and Génier, F., Innovative bayesian and parsimony phylogeny of dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) enhanced by ontology-based partitioning of morphological characters. PLoS ONE, 2015, 10, e0116671.

  • Balthasar, V., Monographic der Scarabaeidae und Aphodiidae der Palaearktischen und Orientalischen Region (Coleoptera: Lamellicornia), Verlag der Tschechoslowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Prag, 1963, vol. I, p. 391.

  • Balthasar, V., Monographie der Scarabaeidae und Aphodiidae der Palaearktischen und Orientalischen Region (Coleoptera: Lamellicornia), Verlag der Tschechoslowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Prag, 1963, vol. II, p. 627.

  • Smith, A. G., A review of the family-group names for the superfamily Scarabaeoidea with corrections to nomenclature and a current classification. Coleopt. Soc. Monogr., 2006, 5, 144–204.

  • Bouchard, P. et al., Family-group names in Coleoptera. ZooKeys, 2011, 88, 1–972.

  • Tarasov, S. and Dimitrov, D., Multigene phylogenetic analysis redefines dung beetle relationships and classification (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae). BMC Evol. Biol., 2016, 16, 1–19.

  • Tarasov, S., Cybertaxonomic revision of the new dung beetle tribe Parachoriini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) and its phylogenetic assessment using molecular and morphological data. Zootaxa, 2017, 4329, 101–149.

  • Davis, A. L. V., Deschodt, C. M. and Scholtz, C. H., Defining new dung beetle tribes to resolve discrepancies between phylogeny and tribal classification in the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Zootaxa, 2019, 4608, 131–144.

  • Breeschoten, T., Doorenweerd, C., Tarasov, S. and Vogler, A. P., Phylogenetics and biogeography of the dung beetle genus Onthophagus inferred from mitochondrial genomes. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 2016, 105, 86–95.

  • Simmons, L. W. and Ridsdill-Smith, T. J., Ecology and Evolution of Dung Beetles, John Wiley, Chichester, UK, 2011.

  • Ocampo, F. C. and Hawks, D. C., Molecular phylogenetics and evolution of the food relocation behaviour of the dung beetle tribe Eucraniini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae). Invertebr. Syst., 2006, 20, 557–570.

  • Wirta, H., Orsini, L. and Hanski, I., An old adaptive radiation of forest dung beetles in Madagascar. Mol. Phylogen. Evol., 2008, 47, 1076–1089.

  • Emlen, D. J., Marangelo, J., Ball, B. and Cunningham, C. W., Diversity in the weapons of sexual selection: horn evolution in the beetle genus Onthophagus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Evolution, 2005, 59, 1060–1084.

  • Ahrens, D., Schwarzer, J. and Vogler, A. P., The evolution of scarab beetles tracks the sequential rise of angiosperms and mammals. Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B., 2014, 281, 20141470.

  • Philips, T. K., Phylogeny of the Oniticellini and Onthophagini dung beetles (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) from morphological evidence. ZooKeys, 2016, 579, 9–57.

  • Tarasov, S. I. and Solodovnikov, A. Y., Phylogenetic analyses reveal reliable morphological markers to classify mega-diversity in Onthophagini dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae). Cladistics, 2011, 27, 490–528.

  • Mlambo, S., Sole, C. L. and Scholtz, C. H., A molecular phylogeny of the African Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Arthropod Syst. Phylogen., 2015, 73, 303–321.

  • Philips, T. K., Pretorius, E. and Scholtz, C. H., A phylogenetic analysis of dung beetles (Scarabaeinae: Scarabaeidae): unrolling an evolutionary history. Invertebr. Syst., 2004, 18, 53–88.

  • Vaz-de-Mello, F., Revision Taxonomica E Analysis Phylogenetico De La Tribu Ateuchini. Ph.D. thesis, Instituto de Ecologia A.C, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, 2007, p. 238.

  • Caterino, M. S., Soowon, C. and Sperling, F. A. H., The current state of insect molecular systematics: a thriving tower of Babel. Annu. Rev. Entomol., 2000, 45, 1–54.

  • Cameron, S. L., Lambkin, C. L., Barker, S. C. and Whiting, M. F., A mitochondrial genome phylogeny of Diptera: whole genome sequence data accurately resolve relationships over broad timescales with high precision. Syst. Entomol., 2007, 32, 40–59.

  • Arrow, G. J., The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma, Coleoptera: Lamellicornia (Coprinae), Taylor and Francis, London, UK, 1931.

  • Simon, S., Frati, F., Beckenbach, A., Crespi, B., Liu, H. and Flook, P., Evolution, weighting, and phylogenetic utility of mitochondrial gene sequences and a compilation of conserved polymerase chain reaction primers. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am., 1994, 87, 651–701.

  • Hall, T. A., BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. Nucleic Acids Symp. Ser., 1999, 41, 95–98.

  • Tamura, K., Stecher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. and Kumar, S., MEGA6: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0. Mol. Biol. Evol., 2013, 30, 2725–2729.

  • Kalyaanamoorthy, S., Minh, B. H., Wong, T. K. F., Haeseler, A. V. and Jermiin, L. S., Model Finder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature Methods, 2017, 14, 587–589.

  • Nguyen, L.-T., Schmidt, H. A., Haeseler, A. V. and Minh, B. Q., IQ-TREE: a fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum likelihood phylogenies. Mol. Biol. Evol., 2015, 32, 268–274.

  • Rambaut, A., FigTree version 1.3.1, 2009; http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk

  • Halffter, G. and Matthews, E. G., The natural history of dung beetles of the subfamily Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Folia Entomol. Mex., 1966, 12–14, 1–312.

  • Davis, A. L. V., Frolov, A. V. and Scholtz, C. H., The African Dung Beetle Genera, Protea Book House, Pretoria, South Africa, 2008, p. 272.


Abstract Views: 283

PDF Views: 125




  • Molecular phylogeny of the dung beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot

Abstract Views: 283  |  PDF Views: 125

Authors

G. Asha
Department of Zoology, Central University of Kerala, Periya 671 316, India
Palatty Allesh Sinu
Department of Zoology, Central University of Kerala, Periya 671 316, India

Abstract


The tribal and generic-level phylogeny of Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) dung beetles have been often debated globally. However, fauna from India have not been a part of these analyses due to lack of data. We used partial sequences of 16S mtDNA gene of dung beetles collected from different parts of the Western Ghats, India, to examine (i) the tribal positions of Onthophagini, Onitini and Oniticellini, and (ii) the phylo­genetic position of different genera of Onthophagini. We found that Oniticellini nested within Onthophagini, suggesting the invalid position of Oniticellini. The non-Onthophagus genera of Onthophagini – Caccobius, Cleptocaccobius, Milichus – nested within Onthophagus, suggesting that these three genera might be invalid and could be subgenera of Onthophagus. Onitini formed a separate clade in the phylogenetic tree. The results suggest for tribal-level reclassification of dung beetles, as noted in previous studies. The present study may enrich the molecular data of the Indian dung beetles, which are currently lacking.

Keywords


Biodiversity hotspot, dung beetles, molecular phylogeny.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv122%2Fi5%2F623-628