Phylogeography of the grasshopper genusOedipoda(Acrididae: Oedipodinae) in the Mediterranean: classic refugia and cryptic lineages

Abstract

AbstractThe evolutionary history and biogeography of species is strongly influenced by climatic conditions and geomorphology. Most thermophilic organisms in Europe have survived colder periods in Mediterranean refugia, which can be inferred from their genetic structure. The band-winged grasshopper genus Oedipoda occurs with nine species in the Mediterranean. We inferred the phylogeny of the western Palaearctic Oedipoda species using gene sequences (two mitochondrial and one nuclear) of a comprehensive sample of most species. Our results show that genetic differentiation between most species is quite strong. Four subspecies (Oedipoda caerulescens amoricana Sellier, 1948 syn. nov., Oedipoda germanica kraussi Ramme, 1931 syn. nov.,Oedipoda fuscocincta moriniDefaut, 2006 syn. nov., and Oedipoda fuscocincta portugalensis Ramme, 1931 syn. nov.) are not supported by our study and are synonymized with the nominate subspecies. Two former subspecies (Oedipoda mauritanica Lucas, 1849 stat. nov. and Oedipoda meridionalis Ramme, 1931 stat. nov.) and one former synonym (Oedipoda pentagonalis Jannone, 1937 stat. nov.) are raised to species level. The status of Oedipoda fuscocincta Lucas, 1847 and Oedipoda coerulea Saussure, 1884 remains unresolved. The subspecies Oedipoda caerulescens sardetiDefaut, 2006 has a wider distribution, including the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, Corsica and Sardinia. The phylogeographic pattern is in line with classic Mediterranean refugia with two waves of differentiation.