Phylogeographic analysis in populations of Protonectarina sylveirae (Saussure, 1854) (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae)

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Marjorie da [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/138905
• topic: Phylogeography; Neotropical Region; Quaternary; Filogeografia; Epiponini; Região Neotropical; mtDNA; Quaternário

Ecological and historical processes of fauna diversification have been widely studied under the light of phylogeography, a discipline that deals with the spatial arrangements of genetic lineages. Swarm-founding wasps (Epiponini) as Protonectarina sylveirae (Saussure) are common representatives of Neotropical fauna. This species is widespread in Atlantic forest and presents a peculiar distribution within Epiponini because of its absence in Amazon region. Many studies point to the existence of recurrent phylogeographical discontinuities to different groups of organisms in Atlantic forest, but the explanations about events causing this patters remain inconclusive. This work aimed to investigate the phylogeographic pattern of P. sylveirae with special interest in presence of genetic structure, morphological differences among populations, and historical event(s) which could explain the observed phylogeographic pattern. Specimens of P. sylveirae were actively collected in 13 areas throughout its distribution for DNA extraction and amplification of mitochondrial genes 12S, 16S and COI. Analysis of genetic diversity, historical demography, divergence time, and population structure were performed. Twenty-two haplotypes were identified, a strong genetic structuration was found by the analysis of molecular variance (ANOVA) and the haplotype network revealed three haplotype groups, also corroborated by AMOVA. Analysis of historical demography showed that populations of P. sylveirae had remained constant throughout its evolutionary history. Differences were also found in morphology, corroborating partially those find by molecular data. Divergence time suggests earlier orogenic events occurred during the Tertiary as an important cause driven population diversification of P. sylveirae, and the role of aridization of forested areas in modeling the current distribution of populations.