Phylogenetic Analysis of Darkling Beetles
Summary
Darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) represent a globally distributed and ecologically diverse beetle family, occupying habitats from arid deserts to temperate forests. Phylogenetic analysis, which integrates morphological characters and molecular data, has reshaped our understanding of their evolutionary relationships, lineage diversification and biogeographical history. Studies employing sequences from mitochondrial and nuclear genes, transcriptomes and morphological traits have delineated major clades—labrioid, pimelioid and tenebrioid branches—and uncovered multiple instances of convergent adaptation to xeric environments. Recent efforts have refined the tribal and subfamilial classification, revealing non-monophyletic assemblages and prompting taxonomic revisions. This work underpins insights into the timing of diversification, often linked to palaeoclimatic events such as Pangaean breakup, global cooling trends and the expansion of angiosperms. Phylogenies have further elucidated dispersal routes, including amphitropical disjunctions between the Mediterranean Basin and southern Africa, and have highlighted key synapomorphies that define higher-level clades. The integration of fossil evidence from Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits complements molecular chronologies, extending the darkling beetle record to at least the Middle Jurassic and emphasising their resilience and adaptive radiation over geological time.
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Phylogenetic Analysis of Darkling Beetles publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in phylogenetic analysis of darkling beetles across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Phylogenetic analysis: Method for reconstructing evolutionary relationships among taxa based on genetic or morphological data.
Molecular phylogeny: Phylogenetic reconstruction using DNA or protein sequences to infer lineage divergences.
Cladistic analysis: Approach that groups organisms by shared derived characters (synapomorphies) to infer evolutionary branching.
Monophyly: A group of organisms comprising an ancestor and all its descendants.
Synapomorphy: A shared derived trait that is used to define a clade.
Transcriptome: The complete set of RNA transcripts produced by the genome under specific conditions, often used for phylogenomic inference.
References
- The Fossil Record of Darkling Beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Geosciences (2019).
- Old origin for an European‐African amphitropical disjunction pattern: New insights from a case study on wingless darkling beetles. Journal of Biogeography (2021).
- Phylogenomics of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from the Atacama Desert. PeerJ (2023).
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