Opening a Pandora´s box: a phylogeographic study of Stoneflies from the end of the world

PESSACQ P.,; MORANDO M.; ANJOS DOS SANTOS D; BYBEE S

Punta Arenas

Congreso; Southern Connections; 2016

Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity Chile, Universidad de Magallanes, Instituto Antártico Chileno

We conducted a phylogeographic study of the widely distributed Patagonian Stonefly Klapopteryx kuschelli. We analyzed 29 populations representing the extent of its range in Argentina. We sampled the nuclear genes H3 and 28S, and the mitochondrial genes COXI and COXII. This species showed considerable genetic structure with the mitochondrial genes and no structure for the nuclear genes. We performed network and phylogeographic analyses with the mitochondrial genes COXI/II. The mtDNA results show that K. kuschelli includes one geographically restricted and one widespread clade, with considerable genetic differences among them. The geographically restricted clade has two haplotypes represented in three populations from the Northwestern extreme of Patagonia (Neuquén Province). The widespread clade includes several haplotypes from the remaining populations of Patagonia. This last clade shows further genetic structure, with few haplotypes from all of the populations from Santa Cruz Province (Southern Patagonia) and forms four populations in central and Northern Patagonia. The remaining sub-clades include several haplotypes with representatives from populations from central and Northern Patagonia. Pleistocene glaciation cycles and/or other geological events may have form barriers to gene flow among these populations. The relative genetic distance between the two main groups may imply the presence of two different species, concordant with the hypothesis of a refugium in Northern Patagonia. The pattern observed for the widely distributed clade is concordant with a split of the ancestral population and/or population extinctions from central Patagonia and more recent colonization of the southernmost part of its distributional range.