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The Role of Sympatric and Allopatric Speciation in the Origin of Biodiversity of Herbivorous Insects, with Palaearctic Species of the Genus Macropsis Lewis, 1836 Taken as an Example (Homoptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Cicadellidae, Eurymelinae, Macropsini)

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Abstract

Using 60 Palaearctic species of the leafhopper genus Macropsis as an example, the contribution of sympatric and allopatric speciation to the origin of herbivorous insect biodiversity was studied. According to the previously reconstructed evolutionary scenarios, in the temperate zone of the Palaearctic Region the genus Macropsis probably dispersed from east to west and formed 10 natural groups, with species within each group being similar both in morphological traits and in host specialization. The hypothetical speciation modes for each group can be largely inferred from geography. If related species replace each other in different zoogeographic regions, they are likely to have arisen as the result of allopatric speciation. If the species show overlapping distributions and live on the same host plant, they must have originated in allopatry and become secondarily sympatric due to subsequent dispersal. Finally, if related species have strongly overlapping ranges and populate similar habitats but differ in host specializations, this may indicate their origin as the result of sympatric speciation due to host plant shifts. For 31 species (51.7%), allopatric speciation seems to be the most likely or even the only possible scenario, whereas for 20 species (33.3%), the hypothesis of sympatric speciation is either convincingly substantiated or at least quite feasible. The origins of the remaining 9 species (15%) remain unknown. Therefore, sympatric speciation is not a rare phenomenon in Macropsis, but it certainly does not predominate over the allopatric mode. Thus, even within the same genus of herbivorous insects, speciation can occur in different ways: in the allopatric mode, when a host plant shift is possible but not essential, and in the sympatric mode, when divergence is triggered by the host shift. Cases of intraspecific differentiation, which can be considered as initial stages of speciation, are also discussed. These are allopatric color forms associated with the same host plant, allopatric color forms associated with different plants and, finally, forms living on different sympatric or allopatric hosts but showing no difference in coloration. It is shown that divergence is not always caused by transition to a new host plant even in specialized herbivores.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am sincerely grateful to V.M. Gnezdilov (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg) and K.V. Makarov (Moscow State Pedagogical University) for thorough consideration of the manuscript and the proposed corrections.

Funding

This work was carried out within the framework of State research assignment AAAA-A16-116021660095-7 and supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 19-04-00073) and Moscow State University grant “Depository of Live Systems” within the Leading Academic Schools Support Program.

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    D. Yu. Tishechkin

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Tishechkin, D.Y. The Role of Sympatric and Allopatric Speciation in the Origin of Biodiversity of Herbivorous Insects, with Palaearctic Species of the Genus Macropsis Lewis, 1836 Taken as an Example (Homoptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Cicadellidae, Eurymelinae, Macropsini). Entmol. Rev. 100, 1039–1064 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873820080011

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