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Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

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Let’s Tok about Tok-Tok beetles: Phylogenomic analyses reveal taxonomic problems within Sepidiini (Tenebrionidae: Pimeliinae)

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Student Competition On-Demand
Sepidiini Eschscholtz, 1829, is a species-rich ( >1,000 sp./spp.) and morphologically diverse tribe of desert-inhabiting darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae: Pimeliinae) distributed throughout Africa and the southern Western Palearctic. This tribe contains many large and charismatic species, including the largest known tenebrionid species, Stridulomus sulcicollis (Péringuey, 1885)--measuring ~80.0 mm! Additionally, many sepidiines are known for their substrate tapping behavior, a form of sexual communication which gives them the nickname Tok-Tokkie beetles. Despite the cultural significance and attention this group receives, the tribe is in need of revision at all taxonomic levels. In order to test current subtribal and generic limits within the group, we reconstructed a phylogeny for the tribe based on targeted enrichment sequence data for 554 genetic loci from 75 taxa. The resulting phylogeny is being used to identify relationships between morphologically distinct lineages and propose new subtribal and generic limits within the tribe.