• Home
  • About Alex Wild
  • Articles
  • Galleries
  • Myrmecology News

Myrmecos Blog

the little things matter

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Monday Night Mystery
Answer to the Monday Night Mystery »

The Myrmica Phylogeny

February 16, 2010 by myrmecos

The online early section of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution this week has the first comprehensive phylogeny of a rather important genus of ants: Myrmica.

Myrmica is ubiquitous in the colder climates of North America and Eurasia, with a few seemingly incongruous species inhabiting the mountains of tropical southeast Asia. The genus contains about 200 species, many that are common soil-nesting ants in lawns and gardens, and at least one damaging invasive species, M. rubra. The taxonomy ranks among the most difficult of any ant genus, as workers of different species tend to be numbingly similar to each other. And there are a lot of species.

Summary cladogram of the ant genus Myrmica, redrawn from Jansen et al 2010, depicting a parsimony reconstruction of the geographic distribution of the genus.

This phylogeny- part of Gunther Jansen‘s Ph.D. thesis- finally sets the systematics of Myrmica on a firm evolutionary footing. Jansen used genetic data from several loci and 106 specimens to infer the history of the genus, recovering a well-supported phylogeny spanning roughly half of the extant species. Considering the difficulties posed by a monotonous worker morphology, these molecular data provide a needed infusion of new information.

Jansen’s primary findings are:

  • In spite of the difficulty posed by morphology, most of the morphology-based species groups are recovered as clades.
  • Much of the deeper history of Myrmica is preserved in North America, with what appears to be several independent dispersals across Beringia to Eurasia.
  • Most social parasites are closely related to their hosts (see Emery’s rule), but the exceptions suggest that socially parasitic lineages can persist beyond subsequent speciation events in their host lineage.
  • Modern Myrmica shared a common ancestor about 30 to 45 million years ago, and the diversification appears to coincide with a global cooling around the Oligocene-Eocene boundary.

It’s a solid paper, and a very welcome advance to the systematics of an important ant genus.


Source: Jansen, G., Savolainen, R., Vepsalainen, K., 2010. Phylogeny, divergence-time estimation, biogeography and social parasite–host relationships of the Holarctic ant genus Myrmica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2010.01.029

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Ants, Science, Taxonomy | Tagged Ants, Evolution, Insects, myrmecology, myrmica, phylogenetics | 4 Comments

4 Responses

  1. on February 17, 2010 at 2:59 pm James C. Trager

    Just read the paper — very nice.

    Now all we need is a good taxonomy for the North American fauna, comparable to the great work that has been completed in the last decade on the Eurasian ones.


  2. on February 18, 2010 at 1:32 am MarekB

    Nice phylogeny. I’m only a bit disappointed by a lack of apparently close relative of M. sabuleti, M. lonae. Well, I guess that Myrmica sabuleti deserves a study of it’s own. It’s a quite variable species, and molecules could help to make sense of the diversity.
    A nice but not discussed detail can be seen in the trees: M. tulinae appears in a clade with an undescribed species and M. hellenica, separate from both sabuleti and scabrinodis.
    M.tulinae was described as a species with antennal scape structure of worker similar to that of sabuleti and male morphology as in scabrinodis. In a later reference it was even stated that when someone encounters what appears to be a nest of sabuleti workers with scabrinodis males, that must be tulinae. Bernhard Seifert treated this species with disbelief, and in his great 2007 book stated that “Der Fall muß mit objektiven Methoden geprüft werden” and did not include the species in his key. I guess this proves the case with unbiased methods…

    Well, it is still a pain to key Eurasian Myrmica, and frequent name and status changes (e.g., Radchenko A., Elmes G.W. 2009. Important alterations in the taxonomy of the ant genus Myrmica…) add to the confusion. Numerous (sometimes excellent, sometimes less so) descriptions of isolated taxa in the recent years make the taxonomy hard to comprehend. However, as I am told, there’s light at the end of the tunnel: monograph of the Old World Myrmica is due out this year! Can’t wait.


  3. on February 18, 2010 at 1:39 am MarekB

    Oh, I omitted an important conclusion that can be drawn from the cladogram above. It finally tells us that Myrmica rugosa is the most p r i m i t i v e member of the genus! Just kidding 😉


    • on February 18, 2010 at 7:11 am myrmecos

      🙂



Comments are closed.


  • This blog is an archive; the Myrmecos blog has moved.

    Please update your bookmarks!
  • Alex’s Galleries

    alexanderwild.com

  • Recent Photos

    # SaloméArtificial Street Photography 1Kettering, Ohio, 2022IN WINTER'S GRIPVegetazione metallica.Un regard hypnotisant / A mesmerizing gaze
    More Photos
  • Biology Links

    • Tree of Life
    • Understanding Evolution
  • Blogroll

    • Ainsley Vs Livejournal
    • Ammonite
    • Anna’s Bee World
    • Archetype
    • Arthropoda blog
    • Backyard Arthropod Project
    • Beetles in the Bush
    • biodiversity in focus
    • Bug Dreams
    • Bug Eric
    • Bug Girl’s Blog
    • Burrard-Lucas Photoblog
    • Catalogue of Organisms
    • Creature Cast
    • Dan Heller
    • Debbie's Insect Blog
    • Dechronization
    • Drawing the MotMot
    • Entomoblog
    • Evolving Thoughts
    • Fall to Climb
    • Generant
    • Historias de Hormigas
    • Life on Six Legs
    • Macromite
    • microecos
    • mirmekolozi
    • myrmecoid
    • Myrmician
    • Natural Imagery
    • Nature in the Ozarks
    • NCSU Insect Blog
    • No Cropping Zone
    • omit needless words
    • Photo Synthesis
    • Princess Peppercloud
    • Science Blogs
    • Snail’s Tales
    • Stu Jenks
    • The Ant Hunter
    • The Ant Room
    • The Bug Whisperer
    • The Loom
    • This Week in Evolution
    • What's Bugging You?
    • Wild about Ants
    • Xenogere
  • Insect Links

    • Ant Farm Forum
    • Ant Insights
    • Antweb
    • Bug Squad
    • bugguide.net
    • Xerces Society
  • Photography Links

    • Canon Photography Forums
    • Digital Photography Review
    • DIY Photography
    • Igor Siwanowicz
    • Mark Plonsky
    • photo.net
    • Piotr Naskrecki
    • The Strobist
  • Popular Posts

    • Rover Ants (Brachymyrmex patagonicus), an emerging pest species
    • Specimen Request: Army/leafcutter/bullet ant queens for morphometrics
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: Nicrophorus orbicollis
    • Myrmecology enters the age of genomics
    • New Species: Coprophanaeus caroliae
    • Eureka! Heureka! An Astonishing New Ant!
    • Ants of the Paraná, then and now
    • Reader question: who discovered the sex of ant workers?
    • Army Ants of the North
    • My, what big eyes you have...
  • Recent Posts

    • This blog has moved.
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: The Hollyhock Weevil
    • The Friday Beetle will be late…
    • Bed bugs reach an all-time high
    • Answer to the Monday Night Mystery
  • Recent Comments

    • Donald Byron Johnson on Reader question: who discovered the sex of ant workers?
    • Anonymous on Update on the Rogue Taxonomist
    • Ant on Arizona Daily Star covers “Planet of the Ants”
    • Ga. Girl on Beware the Cow-Killer
    • Anonymous on Beware the Cow-Killer
  • Categories

  • Archives

  • animation Ants aphids arachnids Argentina arizona army ants art Bees beetles behavior biodiversity biology Biology Links bugs Canon carabidae coleoptera copyright Darwin desert diptera E. O. Wilson ecology entomology Evolution fail fire ants Flies formicidae genetics google haiku Harpegnathos imaging Insect Links Insects invasive species lighting Linepithema macro macrophotography macro photography Martialis media miniscule muppets music myrmecology mystery natural history Nature new species odontomachus Parasites Paratrechina pests pheidole Photography Photography business photoshop phylogenetics phylogeny Pogonomyrmex politics predation Scarabaeidae Science SEM social insects spiders Taxonomy termites travel wasps
  • Nature Blog Network
    Add to Technorati Favorites

    Follow this blog

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Myrmecos Blog
    • Join 91 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Myrmecos Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: