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AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION OF ODONTOTAENIUS DISJUNCTUS AND O. FLORIDANUS

Abstract

Accurate species delimitation and descriptions are a fundamental prerequisite for biological research. We are currently in the midst of the 6th mass extinction, with background extinction rates measuring 1000 times faster than Holocene background extinctions rates. Conservation biology often aims to assess and protect existing biological diversity and is also concerned with the sustainable use of natural resources over the long term. The assessment of biodiversity is the first step to the successful design of any conservation strategy. Identification of the organisms and the extent of morphological and genetic variability between them are the essential components of any biodiversity assessment. Amongst these, the identification of individual organisms via taxonomical and/or molecular means is the first step and vital for designing any conservation strategy. The bess beetles, Odontotaenius disjunctus and O. floridanus, are saproxylic beetles with distributions extending across the eastern United States and restricted to the highlands of central Florida, respectively. Recent studies inferred four well supported lineages that diverged during the Pleistocene and replace each other geographically across the eastern United States. However it has been shown that reliance on a single gene may be misleading because of asymmetrical gene flow, introgression, and other stochastic processes that affect mtDNA disproportionately. In this study, we use multilocus coalescent-based species delimitation methods and multivariate analyses of morphological data to examine whether the phylogroups merit taxonomic recognition as species in light of multiple lines of evidence under the general lineage concept.

Acknowledgements

UWG Biology Dept., UWG Honors College

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