Molecular and morphological recognition of species boundaries in the neglected ant genus Brachymyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): toward a taxonomic revision Claudia Ortiz-Sepulveda, Bert van Bocxlaer, Andrés Meneses, Fernando Fernandez
To cite this version:
Claudia Ortiz-Sepulveda, Bert van Bocxlaer, Andrés Meneses, Fernando Fernandez. Molecular and morphological recognition of species boundaries in the neglected ant genus Brachymyrmex (Hy- menoptera: Formicidae): toward a taxonomic revision. Organisms Diversity and Evolution, Springer Verlag, 2019, 19 (3), pp.447-542. 10.1007/s13127-019-00406-2. hal-02323851
HAL Id: hal-02323851 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02323851 Submitted on 16 Aug 2021
HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Manuscript submitted to: Organisms Diversity & Evolution Published version available; DOI: 10.1007/s13127-019-00406-2
1 Molecular and morphological recognition of species boundaries in the
2 neglected ant genus Brachymyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): towards a
3 taxonomic revision
4
5 Claudia M. Ortiz-Sepulveda1,2,*, Bert Van Bocxlaer1, Andrés D. Meneses2, Fernando Fernández2
6
7 1Université de Lille, CNRS, UMR 8198 - Evo-Eco-Paleo, F-59000 Lille, France.
8 2Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Carrera 30 # 45 – 03, Bogotá,
9 Colombia.
10 ORCID: CMOS: 0000-0003-0072-719X; BVB: 0000-0003-2033-326X.
11 * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +33 3 20 43 40 15.
12
13 ABSTRACT
14 Brachymyrmex is a neglected genus of Formicinae because of its small body size, soft mesosoma
15 and superficially monotonous external morphology. These features have complicated the
16 documentation of morphological variation, resulting in poorly-defined and incompletely
17 described species. Consequently, the taxonomy of the genus is complex and problematic, which
18 has impeded research and conservation efforts. Here we integrate molecular and morphological
19 data to recognize species boundaries in Brachymyrmex and to guide its long-overdue revision.
20 Specifically, we (1) redefine the limits of all described species, subspecies and varieties based on
21 intra- and interspecific morphological variation in workers; (2) document this variation
22 quantitatively by constructing morphospace occupation and statistically analyzing measurements;
23 (3) synthesize our findings on diagnostic traits in a dichotomous, illustrated identification key,
1
Manuscript submitted to: Organisms Diversity & Evolution Published version available; DOI: 10.1007/s13127-019-00406-2
24 and (4) examine the significance of our morphological identification system with molecular
25 evidence from four genes (EF1aEF1, EF1aEF2, WG and COI). We recognize 40 species, of
26 which four are new to science: B. bahamensis, B. bicolor, B. iridescens and B. sosai.
27 Furthermore, Brachymyrmex attenuatus and B. bonariensis are raised to species, and we propose
28 25 new synonyms. Morphometrics indicated that even poorly distinguishable species pairs show
29 statistically significant differences in some traits, and that taxonomically problematic cases