title: Phylogeny of three parapatric species of desert ants, Cataglyphis bicolor, C. viatica, and C. savignyi: a comparison of mitochondrial DNA, nuclear DNA, and morphological data.
abstract: Due to morphological comparisons the Tunisian desert ant species Cataglyphis bicolor has been divided into three parapatric species: C. bicolor, C. viatica, and C. savignyi. The species status of the latter is supported by sequence analyses of the mitochondrial CO1 and CO2 region, while analyses of the same mitochondrial region lacked resolution for the separation of C. bicolor and C. viatica. However, the geographic distribution of mtDNA haplotypes points to different population viscosities with C. bicolor queens having longer migration distances than queens of C. viatica. Furthermore, by the use of microsatellites we excluded ongoing gene flow between geographically overlapping populations of C. bicolor and C. viatica, and hence support the morphology-based three-species hypothesis. Concerning the ongoing discussion on the future roles of morphology and molecular biology in systematics we call for a combination of both whenever possible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland. mknaden@zool.unizh.ch
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knaden
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tinaut
authors.forename: Xim
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cerda
authors.forename: Sibylle
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wehner
authors.forename: Rüdiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wehner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D003710:Demography; D003889:Desert Climate; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005837:Genitalia, Male / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D014416:Tunisia
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial