Phylogenetic analysis of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) based on internal transcribed spacer-2 sequences
Author of the article:MENG Zi-Ye 1** LEI Chao-Liang2 CHEN Xiao-Qin3 JIANG Shi-Hong3***
Author's Workplace:1. Research Center of Buckwheat Industry Technology, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China; 2. Key Laboratory of Insect Resources Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management of Hubei Province, Institute of Insect Resources, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China; 3. College of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen 518055, China
Key Words:Elateridae, internal transcribed spacer, phylogenetic, classification system
Abstract:
[Objectives] To conduct phylogenetic analysis of the ITS-2 fragment of some click beetle (Elateridae) species to determine the genetic relationship among subfamilies, validate the traditional taxonomy, and verify whether the ITS-2 fragment is useful for molecular phylogenetic research on the Elateridae. [Methods] Phylogenetic analysis of the ITS-2 fragment of 69 species of 10 Elateridae subfamilies was conducted. Phylogenetic signal detection was carried out to calculate the genetic distance between subfamilies, and phylogenetic trees were constructed using the adjacency, likelihood, and parsimony, methods. [Results] Trees constructed by all three methods were basically the same, subfamilies were all clearly clustered, and the genetic distances between subfamilies were in accordance with the traditional taxonomy. However, the results also support modifications of the traditional taxonomy, specifically merging the Oxynopterinae and Pityobiinae with the Denticollinae, the Agrypninae and Conoderinae with the Pyrophorinae, and the Melanotinae with the Elaterinae. [Conclusion] The results show that the ITS-2 fragment is suitable for low-level classification of the Elaterinae and the phylogenetic relationships among subfamilies accords with the traditional taxonomy. However, the clustering results differ from the traditional taxonomy and provide a basis for revising the taxonomy of this group.