Phylogeny and divergence time of island tiger beetles of the genus Cylindera (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) in East Asia TEIJI SOTA 1 *, HONGBIN LIANG 2 , YOSHIHIRO ENOKIDO 3 and MICHIO HORI 1 1 Department of Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan 2 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, China 3 Yokohama School for the Deaf and Dumb, Yokohama, 234-0054, Japan Received 16 September 2010; accepted for publication 12 October 2010 To examine the diverse colonization histories in eight tiger beetle species of the genus Cylindera (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) on the East Asian islands, we conducted phylogenetic analyses and divergence time estimation using mitochondrial cytochome oxidase subunit I (COI) and nuclear 28S rDNA sequences. The island fauna consisted of four subgenera: Apterodela, Cicindina, Ifasina, and Cylindera. Apterodela is a flightless group with large bodies, whereas the others are fliers with small bodies. In Apterodela, the divergence among endemic species in Taiwan, Japan, and the mainland was ancient (2.1–4.7 Mya), as expected from their flightlessness. Their dispersal might have occurred across the extended landmass in East Asia during the Pliocene. In the subgenus Cicindina, Cylindera elisae has spread throughout East Asia, from which an endemic species, Cylindera bonina, was derived on the oceanic Bonin Islands during the early Pleistocene (0.9 Mya). This indicates the significance of Cylindera bonina, which is currently confined to a single island, for conservation. In the subgenus Ifasina, Cylindera kaleea is widely distributed in East Asia, and its sister species Cylindera humerula, endemic to Okinawa Island, diverged 1.0 Mya, whereas Cylindera psilica on Taiwan and the Yaeyama Islands diverged approximately 0.8 Mya. In the subgenus Cylindera, the colonization of Cylindera gracilis in Japan from the mainland occurred during the last glacial period. With the exception of C. bonina, which likely colonized new territories by flight or drifting, other dispersal events might have used land connections that occurred repeatedly during the Pliocene and Pleis- tocene. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 102, 715–727. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: 28S rDNA – cytochrome oxidase subunit I – historical biogeography – phylogeogprahy. INTRODUCTION Tiger beetles are one of the most common beetle groups and are nearly ubiquitous in a variety of habitats throughout the world, even occurring on isolated oceanic islands (Pearson & Vogler, 2001). Thus, they serve as an intriguing group for biogeog- raphy analyses, as well as for studying conservation biology on islands. In East Asia, there are relatively large islands, such as Japan and Taiwan, that are close to the mainland, as well as small, isolated islands, such as Ryukyu and Bonin (Ogasawara; Fig. 1), all of which have been colonized by tiger beetles. Satoh et al. (2004) inferred that Japanese populations of four coastal tiger beetle species (genus Lophyridia, Abroscelis, Cicindela, and Chaetodera) diverged from mainland populations during the Pleis- tocene. These coastal species might have had a greater chance of dispersal across the East Asian mainland and the adjacent Japanese islands during glacial regression periods and are not endemic to Japan. However, comparative studies have not been conducted for endemic tiger beetle species on the Japanese main islands and other islands in East Asia, including Taiwan, Ryukyu, and Bonin. The main *Corresponding author. E-mail: sota@terra.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 102, 715–727. With 5 figures © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 102, 715–727 715 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/102/4/715/2450618 by guest on 21 June 2022