Molecular taxonomic analysis of the plant associations of adult pollen beetles (Nitidulidae: Meligethinae), and the population structure of Brassicogethes aeneus.
Pollen beetles (Nitidulidae: Meligethinae) are among the most abundant flower-visiting insects in Europe. While some species damage millions of hectares of crops annually, the biology of many species is little known. We assessed the utility of a 797 base pair fragment of the cytochrome oxidase 1 gene to resolve molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) in 750 adult pollen beetles sampled from flowers of 63 plant species sampled across the UK and continental Europe. We used the same locus to analyse region-scale patterns in population structure and demography in an economically important pest, Brassicogethes aeneus. We identified 44 Meligethinae at ∼2% divergence, 35 of which contained published sequences. A few specimens could not be identified because the MOTUs containing them included published sequences for multiple Linnaean species, suggesting either retention of ancestral haplotype polymorphism or identification errors in published sequences. Over 90% of UK specimens were identifiable as B. aeneus. Plant associations of adult B. aeneus were found to be far wider taxonomically than for their larvae. UK B. aeneus populations showed contrasting affiliations between the north (most similar to Scandinavia and the Baltic) and south (most similar to western continental Europe), with strong signatures of population growth in the south.
a Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.|b Earth and Life Institute - Agronomy, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 2, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Pierre
P
Ouvrard
a Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
Damien M
DM
Hicks
a Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
Molly
M
Mouland
a Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
James A
JA
Nicholls
c School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TQUG, UK.|d Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UJ, UK.
Katherine C R
KC
Baldock
e School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
Mark A
MA
Goddard
e School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
William E
WE
Kunin
f Centre for Agri-Environmental Research, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AR, UK.
Simon G
SG
Potts
g BTL Bio-Test Labor GmbH Sagerheide, Kirchstrasse 3, D-18184 Thulendorf, Germany.
Thomas
T
Thieme
h Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 1, Tartu 51014, Estonia.
Eve
E
Veromann
a Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.
Graham N
GN
Stone
D000818:Animals; D029688:Brassica napus / Q000469:parasitology*; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D010802:Phylogeny; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV
Brassicogethes; DNA barcodes; Meligethinae; code-barres génétique; méligèthes; pollen beetles; pollinators; pollinisateurs