Ap. Vogler et al., MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF THE CICINDELA-MARITIMA (COLEOPTERA, CICINDELIDAE) GROUP INDICATES FAST RADIATION IN WESTERN NORTH-AMERICA, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 91(2), 1998, pp. 185-194
As a basis for the study of ecological diversification in the genus Ci
cindela, we conducted a phylogenetic analysis of all 10 Nearctic and a
single Palearctic species in the Cicindela maritima group. The phylog
eny was derived from a total of 1,896 base pain of mitochondrial DNA c
overing 3 regions of the mt genome. We also sequenced a variable expan
sion segment of the nuclear 18S rRNA which was found invariant in all
species of the C. maritima group but different from all other Cicindel
a analyzed to date. This result, and the phylogenetic analysis of mtDN
A, suggests that the C. maritima group is monophyletic. The mtDNA plac
es the Palearctic C. maritima basal to the North American taxa The wid
espread C. repanda and C. hirticollis are the basal taxa in the North
American clade: 6 species From the western part of the continent form
a clade of very closely related species with little divergence between
mtDNA haplotypes. We also compiled data on habitat associations and p
henology. Traced on the phylogeny both parameters have undergone frequ
ent character changes during the evolution of the lineage, suggesting
that ecological diversification, in combination with geographical subd
ivision, may have promoted taxonomic diversification in this group. Th
e rapid radiation in the mountains of western North America is consist
ent with hypotheses that implicate topographic complexity in the incre
ased rate of species diversification.