Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity
10-Minute Paper
Hojun Song
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Adrian Armstrong
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife
Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Tyler Jay Raszick
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Texas A&M University
Bryan, Texas
Seunggwan Shin
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Greg Cowper
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ricardo Marino-Perez
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
Bert Foquet
Postdoctoral researcher
Illinois State University
Morton, Illinois
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.