| 1. |
- Hovmöller, Rasmus, 1975-
(författare)
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Molecular phylogenetics and taxonomic issues in dragonfly systematics (Insecta: Odonata)
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Dragonflies (Odonata) are one of the ancestral groups of extant insects. They represent one of the three most basal branches in the phylogeny of winged insects. The other two groups are the Ephemeroptera, mayflies, and Neoptera, the latter which covers the remaining winged insects. The first paper is about the phylogenetic position of Odonata in relation to the other basal insect clades using 18S and 28S rDNA sequences. It was demonstrated that there are under certain parameters a strong statistical support for a sister-group relationship between Odonata and Neoptera forming the group Palaeoptera. The second paper is about the phylogeny of the Holarctic dragonfly Leucorrhinia. Dragonfly larvae are frequently equipped with spines on the abdomen, with great variation in spinyness between species. From an analysis of sequences of ITS and 5.8S rDNA it was found that spines have been lost at least twice in Leucorrhinia, in the European L. rubicunda and again in a clade of North American species. The third paper is on the subfamily Ischnurinae (Odonata: Coenagrionidae), a group dominated by the two larger genera Ischnura and Enallagma along with several mono- or oligotypic genera. From the presented molecular study, using mitochondrial 16S rDNA and COII sequences, it is demonstrated that Ischnurinae, and Ischnura are monophyletic. Enallagma is not monophyletic, and the genus name Enallagma should be restricted to the E. cyathigerum clade. he fourth paper is a catalog of the genus Coenagrion, with full information on synonymy, type material and bibliographical data. The fifth paper is an appeal to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to suppress the genus group name Agrion. The letter of appeal elucidates the priority of Agrion, and demonstrates why it has fallen out of use. A case if made for why Agrion should be placed on the list of unavailable names, and Calopteryx given full validity.
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| 2. |
- Lähteenaro, Meri, et al.
(författare)
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Phylogenomic species delimitation of the twisted-winged parasite genus Stylops (Strepsiptera)
- 2024
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Ingår i: Systematic Entomology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0307-6970 .- 1365-3113. ; 49:2, s. 294-313
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The twisted-winged parasite genus Stylops has a history of different species concepts with varying host specificity resulting in diverse species diversity estimates in different regions of the Holarctic. The adoption of a supergeneralist species concept in Europe, proposing synonymization of all Western Palaearctic Stylops species, did not facilitate taxonomic clarity and obscured the available life-history data in the region for decades. Lack of molecular data has allowed divergent opinions on species hypotheses and little opportunity for evaluating them in this morphologically challenging genus. To solve these discrepancies and gain novel information about host associations, we applied whole-genome sequencing to 163 specimens, representing a significant portion of putative European species. We evaluate the existing and conflicting species hypotheses with molecular species delimitation using Species bOundry Delimitation using Astral (SODA) and use a maximum likelihood phylogeny to investigate host associations of the species. Furthermore, we evaluate the effect of a number of loci used in SODA for the number of inferred species. We find justification for synonymization of multiple species and indications of undescribed species, as well as new host-parasite relationships. We show that the number of inferred species in SODA is exceedingly and positively correlated with the number of loci used, urging for cautious application. The results of our study bring clarity to the Western Palaearctic species diversity of Stylops. Furthermore, the comprehensive molecular dataset generated in this study will be a valuable resource for future studies on Stylops and the evolution of parasites in general.
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| 3. |
- Ronquist, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Completing Linnaeus’s inventory of the Swedish insect fauna: only 5,000 species left?
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 15:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite more than 250 years of taxonomic research, we still have only a vague idea about the true size and composition of the faunas and floras of the planet. Many biodiversity inventories provide limited insight because they focus on a small taxonomic subsample or a tiny geographic area. Here, we report on the size and composition of the Swedish insect fauna, thought to represent roughly half of the diversity of multicellular life in one of the largest European countries. Our results are based on more than a decade of data from the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative and its massive inventory of the country’s insect fauna, the Swedish Malaise Trap Project The fauna is considered one of the best known in the world, but the initiative has nevertheless revealed a surprising amount of hidden diversity: more than 3,000 new species (301 new to science) have been documented so far. Here, we use three independent methods to analyze the true size and composition of the fauna at the family or subfamily level: (1) assessments by experts who have been working on the most poorly known groups in the fauna; (2) estimates based on the proportion of new species discovered in the Malaise trap inventory; and (3) extrapolations based on species abundance and incidence data from the inventory. For the last method, we develop a new estimator, the combined non-parametric estimator, which we show is less sensitive to poor coverage of the species pool than other popular estimators. The three methods converge on similar estimates of the size and composition of the fauna, suggesting that it comprises around 33,000 species. Of those, 8,600 (26%) were unknown at the start of the inventory and 5,000 (15%) still await discovery. We analyze the taxonomic and ecological composition of the estimated fauna, and show that most of the new species belong to Hymenoptera and Diptera groups that are decomposers or parasitoids. Thus, current knowledge of the Swedish insect fauna is strongly biased taxonomically and ecologically, and we show that similar but even stronger biases have distorted our understanding of the fauna in the past. We analyze latitudinal gradients in the size and composition of known European insect faunas and show that several of the patterns contradict the Swedish data, presumably due to similar knowledge biases. Addressing these biases is critical in understanding insect biomes and the ecosystem services they provide. Our results emphasize the need to broaden the taxonomic scope of current insect monitoring efforts, a task that is all the more urgent as recent studies indicate a possible worldwide decline in insect faunas.
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| 4. |
- Vårdal, Hege, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Gallstekeln- en mästerlig manipulatör
- 2018
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Ingår i: Yrfän. - : Sveriges Entomologiska Förening. ; 1, s. 14-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Hur kan en liten insekt manipulera ett stort träd till att bygga ett husfyllt med mat till sin avkomma? Den gåtan finns ännu inget svar på. Mengenom att studera gallsteklar kan man i alla fall börja få förståelse för dessamästerliga manipulatörers spännande liv.
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