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| Author(s): |
Rodrigo Barbosa Gonçalves
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB) |
| Defense date: | 2011-05-23 |
| Examining board members: |
Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandao;
Eduardo Andrade Botelho de Almeida;
Maria Cristina Arias;
Gabriel Augusto Rodrigues de Melo;
Silvio Shigueo Nihei
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| Advisor: | Carlos Roberto Ferreira Brandao |
| Abstract | |
Augochlorini (Halictinae) is a common element in the Neotropical region, and his natural history is known by their relatively plasticity when compared to other bees. Augochlorini is sister-group of Halictini, and its oldest fossils date from the Dominican amber (about 20 million years before present). The phylogenetic relationships among their genera were only superficially reconstructed, the competing hypothesis are not entirely congruent nor robust and were based only on morphological data. With this background, this study aims to present a molecular phylogeny to Augochlorini. It was obtained, for 76 terminals, DNA sequences of four genes, 28S, Elongation Factor 1-alpha, Green Rodopsin and Wingless, giving a 3043 base pair alignment. Maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses were carried out for the molecular data, including or excluding regions of ambiguous alignment (loops and introns). The results, based on consensus trees, suggest the paraphyly of both Augochlorini subtribes (sensu Engel), with three groups of genera, gr. Corynura, gr. Rhinocorynura e gr. Chlerogella forming a basal polytomy with a clade containing the remaining genera. This clade has three subgroups, whose phylogenetic relationships were not well stabilized. The first group consists of gr. Megaloptidia and Augochloropsis, Augochlorodes, and Pseudaugochlora, the second group of gr. Neocorynura plus Chlerogas, Paroxystoglossa, and Temnosoma, and the third group consists of gr. Augochlora and Caenaugochlora, Megalopta, and Thectochlora. The first Augochlorini lineages diversified by 70 to 60 million years ago, and since 50 mya there has been a gradual diversification of the group. The reanalysis of augochlorines external morphology was not helpful for understanding the evolution of the group, and also reduced the explanatory power of the total evidence hypothesis. The molecular hypothesis brought new evidences to guide future studies for the group, and positively favored the conception about the evolution of Augochlorini main clades. (AU) | |