Phylogenomics Reveals Biogeographical History and Invasive Species Relationships in the Genus Nylanderia (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Systematic Entomology (2020), DOI: 10.1111/syen.12423 Global domination by crazy ants: phylogenomics reveals biogeographical history and invasive species relationships in the genus Nylanderia (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) JASON L. WILLIAMS1 ,YUANMENGMILESZHANG1 , MICHAEL W. LLOYD2,3 ,JOHNS.LAPOLLA4, TED R. SCHULTZ2 and A N D R E A L U C K Y 1 1Entomology & Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, U.S.A., 2Department of Entomology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, U.S.A., 3Laboratories of Analytical Biology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, U.S.A. and 4Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Towson, MD, U.S.A. Abstract. Nylanderia (Emery) is one of the world’s most diverse ant genera, with 123 described species worldwide and hundreds more undescribed. Fifteen globetrotting or invasive species have widespread distributions and are often encountered outside their native ranges. A molecular approach to understanding the evolutionary history and to revision of Nylanderia taxonomy is needed because historical efforts based on morphol- ogy have proven insuffcient to defne major lineages and delimit species boundaries, especially where adventive species are concerned. To address these problems, we gener- ated the frst genus-wide genomic dataset of Nylanderia using ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to resolve the phylogeny of major lineages, determine the age and origin of the genus, and describe global biogeographical patterns. Sampling from seven biogeo- graphical regions revealed a Southeast Asian origin of Nylanderia in the mid-Eocene and four distinct biogeographical clades in the Nearctic, the Neotropics, the Afrotrop- ics/Malagasy region, and Australasia. The Nearctic and Neotropical clades are dis- tantly related, indicating two separate dispersal events to the Americas between the late Oligocene and early Miocene.
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