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Biogeographical and co ‐evolutionary origins of scarabaeine dung beetles: Mesozoic vicariance versus Cenozoic dispersal and dinosaur versus mammal dung
The subfamily Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) may have originated in Gondwanaland, through Mesozoic vicariance or dispersal in association with dinosaur dung, or through Cenozoic dispersal in association with mammal dung. We review evidence from age‐calibrated phylogenies, fossil records, biogeographical patterns, and ecological associations. Fossil calibrated phylogenies for Scarabaeoidea predict a Cretaceous origin for Scarabaeinae, although age estimates would rely on other scarabaeoid groups given the doubtful validity of Mesozoic ‘scarabaeine’ fossils. Molecular clock calibrated phylogenies for Scarabaei...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Adrian L. V. Davis, Clarke H. Scholtz, Catherine L. Sole Tags: Review Source Type: research

Discovery of mass migration and breeding of the painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui in the Sub ‐Sahara: the Europe–Africa migration revisited
Migratory behaviour has repeatedly evolved across taxa as an adaptation to heterogeneity in space and time. However, insect migration is still poorly understood, partly because of the lack of field data. The painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui undertakes a long‐distance annual migration between Europe and Africa. While spring flights from the Maghreb to Europe are well characterized, it is not known how far the European autumn migrants travel into Africa and whether they massively cross the Sahara Desert. We conducted fieldwork in four African countries (Chad, Benin, Senegal, and Ethiopia) in autumn and documented sout...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Gerard Talavera, Roger Vila Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Mating patterns of the European grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in sympatric and allopatric populations
Phytophagous insects have been at the heart of investigations of ecological speciation, and it is clear that adaptation to different host plant species can promote host race formation and insect speciation. However, the evolution of host races has typically been studied at the plant species scale, using sympatric populations of insects that are specialized on particular plant species. Because many crop pest species are adapted to various plant varieties selected from a single plant species, it is of interest to establish whether reproductive barriers could evolve at this much smaller geographical scale, between individuals...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Karen Muller, Denis Thi éry, Lionel Delbac, Jérôme Moreau Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Out of Borneo, again and again: biogeography of the Stream Toad genus Ansonia Stoliczka (Anura: Bufonidae) and the discovery of the first limestone cave ‐dwelling species
Subsequent to the Miocene (approximately 35 Mya), Borneo has served as an insular refuge and a source of colonization for a broad range of species emigrating to others parts of Sundaland. A phylogeny‐based historical biogeographical hypothesis for the Stream Toad genus Ansonia supports multiple instances of an out‐of‐Borneo scenario. An ancestral range estimation indicates that in situ speciation of Ansonia on the island of Borneo during the Late Miocene and Pliocene (approximately 2–13 Mya) eventually resulted in an invasion of the Philippines, Sumatra, and two independent invasions of the Thai‐Malay Peninsul...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: L. Lee Grismer, Perry L. Wood, Anchalee Aowphol, Michael Cota, Marta S. Grismer, Matthew L. Murdoch, Cesar Aguilar, Jesse L. Grismer Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Crinoid phylogeny: new interpretation of the main Permo ‐Triassic divergence, comparisons with echinoids and brachiopods, and EvoDevo interpretations of major morphological variations
An alignment of nuclear and mitochondrial gene sequences (1529 data columns from three genes: nuclear‐encoded 28S ribosomal DNA, mitochondrial 16S rDNA, and cytochrome oxidase subunit 1) from 120 specimens representing a wide selection of extant crinoids is used in Bayesian relaxed‐clock analyses to construct the maximum clade credibility tree and to locate the root. This tree, and its root position, largely agree with those previously published on the basis of mid‐point and outgroup rooting, and, using a likelihood ratio test, we find that our independently aligned data do not depart significantly from a strict mole...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Bernard L. Cohen, Andrzej Pisera Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Evolution of dorsal pattern variation in Greater Antillean Anolis lizards
Dorsal patterning in animals can serve as an antipredator defence and may be involved in sexual selection, and is thus likely to be the target of multiple selective forces. Intraspecific variation in dorsal patterning is not rare, but the reasons behind it are poorly understood. Anolis lizards offer an ideal system to test for a role of ecological factors in driving variation in dorsal pattern. Anoles show a high degree of variation in dorsal pattern not only among species, but also between and within sexes. We use a comparative framework to explore whether ecological variables such as habitat use and perch height can expl...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Iliana Medina, Jonathan B. Losos, D. Luke Mahler Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Post ‐glacial colonization of Europe by the wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus: evidence of a northern refugium and dispersal with humans
The wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus is an opportunistic rodent that is found throughout most of the European mainland. It is present on many islands around the margins of the continent and in northern Africa. The species has been the subject of previous phylogeographical studies, although these have focussed on the more southerly part of its range. A substantial number of new samples, many of them from the periphery of the species' range, contribute to an exceptional dataset comprising 981 mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences. These new data provide sufficient resolution to transform our understanding of the survival of the...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Jeremy S. Herman, Fr íða Jóhannesdóttir, Eleanor P. Jones, Allan D. McDevitt, Johan R. Michaux, Thomas A. White, Jan M. Wójcik, Jeremy B. Searle Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Phylogeography and species delimitation in convict cichlids (Cichlidae: Amatitlania): implications for taxonomy and Plio –Pleistocene evolutionary history in Central America
We investigate phylogeographic patterns and delimit species boundaries within Amatitlania, a genus of Central American cichlid fishes. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences from 318 individuals spanning the geographical ranges of all three currently recognized Amatitlania species strongly supported one major clade, with a relatively diverged subclade corresponding to A. kanna samples from eastern Costa Rica and Panama. Gene trees and networks revealed marked incongruences between phylogeographic structure and morpho‐species taxonomy as a result of species‐level polyphyly. Bayes factor comparisons of spe...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Justin C. Bagley, Wilfredo A. Matamoros, Caleb D. McMahan, Michael Tobler, Prosanta Chakrabarty, Jerald B. Johnson Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Speciation through the looking ‐glass
We respond to a comment by Allmon WD (2016), who attempted to demonstrate that species are biologically ‘real’ as justification for retaining the terms ‘anagenesis’ and ‘cladogenesis’, which we argue are not necessary for the study of evolutionary biology (Vaux F, Trewick SA & Morgan‐Richards M, 2016). Here, we summarize a wealth of literature demonstrating that supposedly separate species introgress frequently, and we clarify that evolutionary lineage‐splitting with genotypic and phenotypic divergence (speciation) is not the same as taxonomic classification. The usefulness of the terms anagenesis and c...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Felix Vaux, Steven A. Trewick, Mary Morgan ‐Richards Tags: Comment Source Type: research

Species, lineages, splitting, and divergence: why we still need ‘anagenesis’ and ‘cladogenesis’
In a recent review, Vaux, Trewick & Morgan‐Richards (2016) argued that species are ‘arbitrary’, speciation virtually unstudyable (especially in the fossil record), and that the terms ‘anagenesis’ and ‘cladogenesis’ are confusing, unnecessary, and perhaps even misleading as descriptors of evolution. Their paper, however, contains numerous debatable statements, and does not in the end accomplish what they say is their primary aim: to clarify terminology and facilitate communication. Species seldom appear instantaneously, and therefore their exact time of origin is difficult or impossible to identify precise...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 31, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Warren D. Allmon Tags: Comment Source Type: research

Temperature ‐dependent colour change is a function of sex and directionality of temperature shift in the eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)
Sexually dimorphic colour traits are widespread across taxa, but relatively little is known about how and why these features change with body temperature. To examine whether sex and directionality (warming vs. cooling) influence temperature‐dependent colour change, we used spectrophotometry to characterize ventral and dorsal coloration in eastern fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus), a species with temperature‐dependent conspecific signals (ventral patches). In general, we found that skin colour (hue) in both sexes changed with temperature. Only ventral patch colour in males changed visibly to human observers; ventral ...
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 30, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Barry P. Stephenson, Nikolett Ih ász, David C. Byrd, John Swierk, Lindsey Swierk Tags: Research Article Source Type: research

Temperature ‐dependent colour change is a function of sex and directionality of temperature shift in the eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, EarlyView. (Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society)
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 30, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Barry P. Stephenson, Nikolett Ih ász, David C. Byrd, John Swierk, Lindsey Swierk Source Type: research

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Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Ahead of Print. (Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society)
Source: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society - August 30, 2016 Category: Research Source Type: research