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Dryad

Data for: Preliminary phylogenomic analyses reveal multiple reversions to nocturnal behavior and morphology within the primarily diurnal tribe Adesmiini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Data files

Jun 07, 2023 version files 32.22 GB
Jun 07, 2023 version files 32.22 GB

Abstract

The darkling beetle tribe Adesmiini (Tenebrionidae: Pimeliinae) is a prominent part of the African and western Palearctic desert faunas, with most species being day-active fast-running detritivores. Taxonomic diversity within the tribe is highest in the southern part of the Afrotropical realm (all genera present), while only the species-rich genus Adesmia occurs north of the Sahara. Despite containing conspicuous diurnal species, such as the fog-basking beetle Onymacrisunguicularis (a focal taxon in ecological research for decades), Adesmiini has undergone few modern taxonomic or phylogenetic studies. Hence, generic concepts and the evolution of diurnal behaviors and morphologies, rare in the primarily nocturnal family Tenebrionidae, remain poorly explored. To investigate evolutionary relationships and the origin of diurnal activity within the tribe, a genomic dataset of 529 protein-coding genes across 43 species spanning 10 of 11 Adesmiini genera was assembled and analyzed. The resulting phylogeny for the tribe does not support the monophyly of many current Adesmiini genera (i.e. Adesmia, Metriopus, Onymacris, Physadesmia, and Stenocara). Ancestral state reconstruction of diurnal activity, using eye shape as a proxy and supplemented by literature and collection records, supports the hypothesis that Adesmiini were primitively diurnal, followed by at least four shifts to nocturnal or crepuscular activity.