TY - JOUR
AU1 - Lackner, Tomáš
AU2 - Tarasov, Sergei
AB - Our study – the first of its kind within Histeridae (Coleoptera) – deals with the female genitalia in the subfamily Saprininae, with respect to their variation and utility for phylogenetic reconstruction. Morphology of female genitalia (chiefly characters of the spermatheca, and variation of the gonocoxites, articulating sclerites and gonostyli) is herein described and depicted. We perform parsimony‐based morphological phylogenetic analyses of Saprininae using combined datasets that comprise somatic, male and female genitalia characters. We assess phylogenetic utility of female genital characters and test for their correlation with male genital characters. We found that female genitalia are generally moderately informative for phylogenetic reconstruction. The somatic and male genitalia characters (on average) possess higher phylogenetic signal; female genitalia provide better support and diagnoses for particular clades (emphasizing their importance for systematics), in which the evolution of female genitalia can be linked to environmental factors imposed by the mode of life. Regardless of the degree of informativeness, structures of female genitalia represent an additional interesting and important source of information for systematics and taxonomy. We did not find any evidence of correlated evolution between male and female genitalia.
TI - Female genitalia are moderately informative for phylogenetic inference and not concerted with male genitalia in Saprininae beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae)
JF - Systematic Entomology
DO - 10.1111/syen.12346
DA - 2019-10-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/female-genitalia-are-moderately-informative-for-phylogenetic-inference-mkV03Jn9qI
SP - 667
EP - 685
VL - 44
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -