Biogeographical analysis of the flea beetle genus Chaetocnema in the Afrotropical Region: distribution patterns and areas of endemism

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 720-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Biondi ◽  
Paola D'Alessandro
2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mário Sérgio Sigrist ◽  
Claudio José Barros de Carvalho

An important biological challenge today is the conservation of biodiversity. Biogeography, the study of the distribution patterns of organisms, is an important tool for this challenge. Endemism, the co-occurrence of several species unique to the same area, has important implications for the preservation of biodiversity, since many areas of endemism are also areas with large human impact. More rigorously defined, areas of endemism are historical units of distributional congruence of monophyletic taxa. These areas often assumed to be due to nonrandom historical events that favored conditions associated with high rates of speciation. Thus, understanding endemism and the delimitation of endemic areas has important implications for conservation. Today, most studies delimit areas of endemism by superimposing maps of distribution for various species. This approach suffers from arbitrary delimitations, however, when a great distributional data is used. In this paper we used the method of Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) based on georeferenced quadrats in order to delimit areas of endemism. This modality of the method is important due to its testable nature and can also be used to infer area relationships. We applied the method to raw distributional data from 19 unrelated taxa to delimit general patterns of endemism in the Neotropical Region and in the Atlantic forest domain using different grid scales. Neotropical areas found are comprised over the Panama region, northern Andean region and the Atlantic forest. Atlantic forest showed a major division into two distinct components (northern x southern). Endemic areas delimited using smaller scale grids on the Atlantic forest should be considered for conservation priorities once they showed endemism at regional and local scales. The results were also compared to other studies using different taxa and methods. Finally, some considerations on the analysis scale and future perspectives of the method are presented.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Biondi ◽  
Roberta Frasca ◽  
Elizabeth Grobbelaar ◽  
Paola D’Alessandro

The supraspecific taxonomy of the species traditionally attributed to the flea beetle genusBlepharidaChevrolat, 1836 is discussed. A cladistic analysis, based on 30 morphological characters of traditionalBlepharidaspecies, has revealed that two genera occur in Sub-Saharan Africa:CalothecaHeyden, 1887 andBlepharidinaBechyné, 1968. The latter genus is known from Africa, and probably also Madagascar, and has two subgenera:Blepharidinas.str. andAfroblepharidasubgen. nov. Twenty-seven traditionalBlepharidaspecies are here attributed to the genusCalothecaHeyden, while eighteen species are assigned to the genusBlepharidinaBechyné. FourBlepharidinaspecies,antinorii(Chapuis, 1879),gedyei(Bryant, 1948),scripta(Weise, 1904) andsomaliensis(Bryant, 1948), belong to the new subgenusAfroblepharida. The following new synonymies are established:Eutheca conradsiWeise, 1906= Eutheca erlangeriWeise, 1907 syn. nov. =Blepharidella irregularisBryant, 1945 syn. nov.;Blepharida marginalisWeise, 1902 =Blepharida monticolaWeise, 1926 syn. nov. =Blepharida ugandaeBryant, 1944 syn. nov.;Blepharida inornataJacoby, 1895 =Blepharida semisulcataAchard, 1922 syn. nov.;Blepharidella lewiniWeise in Lewin, 1912 =Blepharidella picticollisBryant, 1945 syn. nov.;Podontia nigrotessellataBaly, 1865= Blepharidella rubrosignataBryant, 1945 syn. nov.= Blepharidella variabilisBryant, 1945 syn. nov.;Blepharida ornataBaly, 1881= Blepharida freyiBechyné, 1954 syn. nov.;Podontia reticulataBaly, 1865= Blepharida guttulaBryant, 1944 syn. nov.;Blepharida antinoriiChapuis, 1879 =Blepharida sudanicaBryant, 1944 syn. nov.;Blepharida scriptaWeise, 1904= Blepharida geminataBryant, 1944 syn. nov. In addition:Blepharida plagipennisAchard, 1922, its locality certainly mislabeled, is transferred to the New World genusNotozonaChevrolat, 1837;Calotheca thunbergiis proposed as the new name forBlepharida stolida(Thunberg, 1808). Finally, an updated catalogue of the known species ofCalothecaandBlepharidinais also supplied, including new synonymies, material examined, new faunistic records, distributions and chorotypes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youhua Chen

Abstract In this contribution, I identify possible biotic elements of reptiles of China using biotic element analysis. I test whether the vicariance model could significantly shape reptilian current distribution patterns. My results show that dispersal is prevailing for reptiles in China. There are four major biotic elements in reptilian distribution, which are East Xizang, Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Taiwan and Hainan, respectively. The test of distributional areas is significantly more clustered than expected by chance, while in another test that closely related species are homogeneously distributed across biotic elements cannot be rejected. Therefore I argued that vicariance might be one of the key processes in patterning reptilian distribution in China. In addition, I develop an improved biotic element analysis in biogeographic studies, by performing biotic element analysis in an iterative manner in order to diagnose more geographically restricted elements until no noise components found. The importance of antecedent selection of distributional data for the subsequent analysis is also discussed. Besides, my study indicates that biodiversity hotspots are not fully overlapped with areas of endemism for reptilians in East Asia.


Zootaxa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1958 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
DUANGRAT THONGPHAK ◽  
QIAO WANG

The Australia genus Uracanthus consists of 39 species and its larvae are known to be borers of at least 31 genera of trees and parasitic plants in 15 families (Asteraceae, Betulaceae, Casuarinaceae, Cupressaceae, Fabaceae, Loranthaceae, Myrtaceae, Pittosporaceae, Proteaceae, Rhamnaceae, Rosaceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Xanthorrhoeaceae), including some economically important crops such as citrus, litchi, peach, plum, and apricot. The phylogeny and biogeographic distribution of the genus were investigated in this paper. Here, the monophylies of the genus and seven species groups are inferred based on morphological characters of 39 ingroup and four outgroup species. However, several species groups still need additional steps to become monophyletic and are currently considered paraphyletic. The Uracanthus fauna occur in five biogeographic subregions: the Kosciuskan, Western and Eyrean in southern and central Australia, and the Torresian and Timorian in northern Australia. The fauna are richest with highest endemism in the Kosciuskan and Western. The Kosciuskan and Western are similar in faunal composition and closely related; the Eyrean has probably acted as a faunal exchange transit area between the Kosciuskan and Western, and the two northern Australian subregions have no endemic species. When the areas of endemism of each species are attached to the proposed phylogenetic tree, a clear picture of the distribution patterns of species groups in relation to phylogeny is obtained. It is suggested that the speciation and species radiation of Uracanthus may have occurred first in the Kosciuskan, then in the Western, and finally in the Eyrean, Torresian, and Timorian.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mário Sérgio Sigrist ◽  
Claudio José Barros de Carvalho

Areas of endemism are the smallest units of biogeographical analysis. One of its definitions is that these areas harbor organisms with restricted distributions caused by non random historical factors. The aim of this study was to examine historical relationships among areas of endemism in the Neotropics using Brooks Parsimony Analysis (BPA). We applied BPA to 12 unrelated taxa distributed within two sets of endemic areas in order to: (1) compare the proposed endemic area classifications; (2) examine whether Amazonia and Atlantic Forest are true biogeographic units and, (3) examine whether the inclusion of open area formations influence area relationships of the surrounding forests. General area cladograms revealed a basal split between Amazonian and Atlantic forests, suggesting that these areas have been isolated for a long period of time. All Atlantic forest endemic areas formed a monophyletic cluster, showing a sequence of vicariant events from north to south. The hypothesis that Amazonia is a composite area, made up of different historical units, is herein corroborated. When Cerrado and Caatinga (grasslands and savannas) are included, internal area relationships within Amazonia change, indicating that area classification schemes comprising forests and open formations should be preferred given the complementary history of these areas.


2006 ◽  
Vol 66 (1a) ◽  
pp. 61-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Goldani ◽  
G. S. Carvalho ◽  
J. C. Bicca-Marques

The Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) is a method of historical biogeography that is used for detecting and connecting areas of endemism. Based on data on the distribution of Neotropical primates, we constructed matrices using quadrats, interfluvial regions and pre-determinated areas of endemism described for avians as Operative Geographic Units (OGUs). We codified the absence of a species from an OGU as 0 (zero) and its presence as 1 (one). A hypothetical area with a complete absence of primate species was used as outgroup to root the trees. All three analyses resulted in similar groupings of areas of endemism, which match the distribution of biomes in the Neotropical region. One area includes Central America and the extreme Northwest of South America, other the Amazon basin, and another the Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado and Chaco.


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