title: Founder effects initiated rapid species radiation in Hawaiian cave planthoppers.
abstract: The Hawaiian Islands provide the venue of one of nature's grand experiments in evolution. Here, we present morphological, behavioral, genetic, and geologic data from a young subterranean insect lineage in lava tube caves on Hawai'i Island. The Oliarus polyphemus species complex has the potential to become a model for studying rapid speciation by stochastic events. All species in this lineage live in extremely similar environments but show strong differentiation in behavioral and morphometric characters, which are random with respect to cave age and geographic distribution. Our observation that phenotypic variability within populations decreases with increasing cave age challenges traditional views on founder effects. Furthermore, these cave populations are natural replicates that can be used to test the contradictory hypotheses. Moreover, Hawaiian cave planthoppers exhibit one of the highest speciation rates among animals and, thus, radically shift our perception on the evolutionary potential of obligate cavernicoles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Research, Museum für Naturkunde-Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions-und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, D-10115 Berlin, Germany. andreas.wessel@mfn-berlin.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wessel
authors.forename: Hannelore
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoch
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Asche
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: von Rintelen
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stelbrink
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Heck
authors.forename: Fred D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: Francis G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Howarth
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001837:Body Weights and Measures; D059552:Caves; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D018703:Founder Effect; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006254:Hawaii; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010641:Phenotype; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013045:Species Specificity; D013269:Stochastic Processes
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: density-dependent selection; dynamic adaptive landscape; nonadaptive speciation; sexual behavior; vibrational communication