Larval Morphology Enhances Phylogenetic Reconstruction In
Systematic Entomology (2008), 33, 128–144 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2007.00399.x Larval morphology enhances phylogenetic reconstruction in Cetoniidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) and allows the interpretation of the evolution of larval feeding habits ESTEFANIA MICO´1 , MIGUEL A´NGEL MORO´N 2 , PETR SˇI´PEK3 andEDUARDO GALANTE1 1Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad (CIBIO), Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain, 2Instituto de Ecologı´a, A.C. Departamento de Biologı´a de Suelos, Km. 2.5 antigua carretera a Coatepec, nu´m. 351, Congregacio´n El Haya, C.P. 91070, Veracruz, Mexico and 3Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Abstract. The Cetoniidae, the showiest of scarabs, comprises some 3900 species in 515 genera, distributed worldwide except for subpolar areas and some offshore New Zealand islands. Parsimony analysis of 76 larval and adult characters and 42 terminal taxa supports the monophyly of Cetoniidae (sensu Krikken, 1984), but not of the traditionally considered subfamilies Cetoniinae and Trichiinae (sensu Krikken, 1984). In the study taxon, larval characters are shown to be more informative than those of adults for deeper phylogeny. The evolution of some larval characters (head and legs) in relation to feeding habits is discussed on the basis of phylogenetic analysis. The results show an evolutionary shift from wood associations to a higher ecological plasticity that allows the larvae to feed on wide sources of organic matter (including compost, dung, gopher burrows, packrat middens,
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