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Video Q&A ViewAttendees 1

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

10-Minute Paper

SysEB: Biodiversity On-Demand Presentations

Evolution and speciation in afromontane and alpine grasshoppers in Southern Africa

On-Demand
On-Demand

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Hojun Song

    Associate Professor
    Texas A&M University
    College Station, Texas

    • Co-Author(s)

  • AA

    Adrian Armstrong

    Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife
    Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

  • Tyler Jay Raszick

    Postdoctoral Research Associate
    Texas A&M University
    Bryan, Texas

  • SS

    Seunggwan Shin

    University of Memphis
    Memphis, Tennessee

  • GC

    Greg Cowper

    Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  • RM

    Ricardo Marino-Perez

    Texas A&M University
    College Station, Texas

  • BF

    Bert Foquet

    Postdoctoral researcher
    Illinois State University
    Morton, Illinois

  • DO

    Daniel Otte

    Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Within Southern Africa, there exist two parallel chains of habitat islands that are unique and ancient. The first is a thousand-mile arc of high mountain habitats in the far south consisting of a great mountain massif whose eastern edge has eroded into a line of high precipices and isolated rock fragments, thereby forming a line of alpine islands. The second is a string of forest patches constituting perhaps the most complex archipelago in the world being four thousand miles long, stretching from the tip of the continent to the horn of Africa. These two chains of habitat islands have not yet been explored in terms of grasshopper diversity, and given their complexity, it is likely that there is an entirely new fauna waiting to be discovered. One particular lineage of interest is the ancient flightless grasshopper family Lentulidae. In this presentation, we summarize the results from our recent expeditions to these habitats, which have resulted in description of numerous new species. We have also conducted a RAD-based population genetics analysis of a widespread species that occupy different forest patches to understand the pattern of gene flows among these isolated habitat islands. Finally, we have performed a phylogenomic analysis of the genus Eremidium, which reveals interesting patterns of biogeographic distributions.