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Phylogenetic Studies on European Members of the Family Scutoverticidae (Acari, Oribatida) and Aspects to the Character Evolution Within “Higher Oribatida“

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Phylogenetic Studies on European Members of the Family Scutoverticidae (Acari, Oribatida) and Aspects to the Character Evolution Within “Higher Oribatida“ Phylogenetic studies on European members of the family Scutoverticidae (Acari, Oribatida) and aspects to the character evolution within “Higher Oribatida“ Dissertation Zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Dr. rer. nat. an der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Karl-Franzens Universität Graz vorgelegt von Mag. Sylvia Schäffer Supervisor: Univ. Prof. Mag. Dr. Christian Sturmbauer Co-supervisor: ORat Dr. Günther Krisper Graz, 2010 “A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.” Albert Einstein Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question "How?" but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question "Why?" Erwin Chargaff Many Thanks To… Univ. Prof. Mag. Dr. Christian Sturmbauer for his good supervision of my thesis ORat Dr. Günther Krisper for involving me in the FWF-project, sparking my interest in our “sweet “, little mites and being a good supervisor Dr. Stephan Koblmüller for showing me the manifold fields in molecular phylogeny and helping me in all kinds of genetic and writing problems Priv. Doz. Dr. Kristina Sefc & Priv. Doz. Dr. Steven Weiss for support and advices my acarine working group especially Dr. Tobias Pfingstl for the good cooperation in the project all my colleagues and friends here at the institute in particular Dr. Kathrin Winkler, Mag. Michaela Maderbacher, Mag. Lisbeth Postl and Mag. Julia Jagersbacher-Baumann for our common hours not only at the institute all of my closest friends especially, I want to thank Dipl. Päd. Stefanie Pansi with the words „Amicitia vincit horas“ Ewald for being by my side my parents for supporting me in all kinds of things Contents Summary ...........................................................................................................................1 Zusammenfassung ............................................................................................................4 Publications ........................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1 General Introduction Oribatid mites ......................................................................................................................10 Molecular genetic as tool for evolutionary questions..........................................................13 Objectives of the present study............................................................................................15 References ...........................................................................................................................19 CHAPTER 2 Description of Scutovertex pileatus sp. nov. (Acari, Oribatida, Scutoverticidae) and molecular phylogenetic investigation of congeneric species in Austria Abstract................................................................................................................................26 Introduction .........................................................................................................................27 Material and Methods..........................................................................................................27 Results .................................................................................................................................30 Discussion............................................................................................................................40 References ...........................................................................................................................43 CHAPTER 3 Contrasting mitochondrial DNA diversity estimates in Austrian Scutovertex minutus and S. sculptus (Acari, Oribatida, Brachypylina, Scutoverticidae) Abstract................................................................................................................................46 Introduction .........................................................................................................................47 Material and Methods..........................................................................................................48 Results .................................................................................................................................54 Discussion............................................................................................................................58 Conclusions .........................................................................................................................62 Appendix .............................................................................................................................63 References ...........................................................................................................................63 CHAPTER 4 Phylogenetic analysis of European Scutovertex mites (Acari, Oribatida, Scutoverticidae) reveals paraphyly and cryptic diversity: A molecular genetic and morphological approach Abstract................................................................................................................................72 Introduction .........................................................................................................................73 Material and Methods..........................................................................................................76 Results .................................................................................................................................84 Discussion............................................................................................................................88 Conclusions .........................................................................................................................92 References ...........................................................................................................................93 Appendix A .........................................................................................................................101 Appendix B..........................................................................................................................104 CHAPTER 5 Ancestral state reconstruction reveals multiple evolution of diagnostic characters in the “Higher Oribatida” (Acari), conflicting current classification schemes Abstract................................................................................................................................105 Introduction .........................................................................................................................107 Material and Methods..........................................................................................................111 Results .................................................................................................................................118 Discussion............................................................................................................................130 Conclusions .........................................................................................................................136 References ...........................................................................................................................137 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................145 Curriculum Vitae...............................................................................................................149 Summary Summary In mites species identification is normally based on morphological character sets but in the early nineties, molecular genetic studies found their ways into acarine research. Since that time, acarologists got important insights into inter- and intraspecific relationships, species diversity or evolutionary histories of different mite groups. Several phylogenetic studies on oribatid mites already confirmed the utility of different molecular markers for answering various evolutionary questions. For this reason, it was attempted to use molecular genetic analyses for a study on the evolutionary relationships within the oribatid mite family Scutoverticidae and to trace morphological character evolution within the group Circumdehiscentiae. In general, many taxa of the family Scutoverticidae are morphologically very similar and thus hardly to distinguish. This is due to either short, inaccurate description of the species or limited knowledge of the amount of intraspecific variation and the diversity within this mite family. An often-stated problem in former literature is certainly the discrimination of the two most widespread Scutovertex species S. minutus and S. sculptus although both species possess clear diagnostic morphological characters differentiating them. For this reason, it was firstly attempted to solve these uncertainties by means of molecular genetic data. Additionally to the description of the new species Scutovertex pileatus sp. nov. in CHAPTER 2, sequence data of one mitochondrial gene were used to examine the taxonomic discreteness of the three last mentioned species. Phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences of the COI gene (region 2, 567 bp) using Cymbaeremaeus cymba as outgroup, unambiguously support the discreteness of S. minutus, S. sculptus and S. pileatus by placing them reciprocally monophyletic. Interspecific distances among the three
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