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Interglacial refugia and range shifts of the alpine grasshopper Stenobothrus cotticus (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Gomphocerinae)

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Abstract

A warming climate leads to shifts in distribution ranges to higher latitudes and altitudes. Consequently, cold-adapted alpine species can be trapped in interglacial Holocene refugia on high mountain summits if they fail to expand their ranges to the north. One example is the alpine grasshopper Stenobothrus cotticus. This species was assumed to be endemic to the southwestern Alps (France, Italy). However, we have found a second refugium in the Rila Mountains in southwestern Bulgaria. Analyses of the mitochondrial gene co1 and of phenotypic characters from morphology and behaviour did not reveal differences between the two geographically separated populations of S. cotticus studied. We suppose that S. cotticus had a wider distribution during colder periods, when its range was expanded to lower altitudes. This hypothesis is supported by the current distribution of the closely related montane S. rubicundulus.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Popov (NMNH, Sofia), B. Michajlova (MMNH, Skopje), A. Pulev (BHM, Blagoevgrad), L. Stefanov (Skopje), and O. von Helversen (Erlangen) for providing access to official and personal collections. We are very grateful to F. Willemse (Eygelshoven) for supplying inaccessible literature, and to W. Schulze (Erlangen) for technical advice. Furthermore we are indebted to W. Schulze (Erlangen), B. Gottsberger (Vienna), J. Ustinova (Karlsruhe), Klaus-Gerhard Heller (Magdeburg), and F. Willemse (Eygelshoven) for comments and fruitful discussions on the manuscript. This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Staedtler-Stiftung.

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  1. Dirk Berger

    Present address: Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Museum für Tierkunde, Königsbrücker Landstraße 159, 01109, Dresden, Germany

  2. Frieder Mayer

    Present address: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

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  1. Institut für Biologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstraße 5, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Dirk Berger & Frieder Mayer

  2. Institute of Zoology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Tsar Osvoboditel blvd. 1, BG-1000, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Dragan P. Chobanov

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Berger, D., Chobanov, D.P. & Mayer, F. Interglacial refugia and range shifts of the alpine grasshopper Stenobothrus cotticus (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Gomphocerinae). Org Divers Evol 10, 123–133 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-010-0004-4

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