New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Scree weta phylogeography: surviving glaciation and implications for Pleistocene biogeography in New Zealand

STEVEN A. TREWICK^*

Department of Zoology
University of Otago
P. O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
^*Present address:
Department of Plant and Microbial Sciences,
University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Abstract  The Pleistocene glaciation is thought to have had a profound impact on the distribution of endemic biota. The intraspecific phylogeography of the alpine-adapted scree weta, Deinacrida connectens Ander, was surveyed throughout its range in the South Island, New Zealand using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I DNA sequence data. Seven distinct genetic lineages were evident from mtDNA haplotypes, with each occupying mountain ranges in discrete geographic regions. Genetic distances among lineages were up to 8.2%, whereas within-lineage distances reached only 2.8%. The inferred age of lineages and the striking phylogeographic structure exhibited by D. connectens indicates that it radiated in response to Pliocene mountain building. Maintenance of this structure is likely to relate to the combined effects of mountain-top isolation during Pleistocene interglacials and ice barriers to dispersal during glacials. Two lineages are endemic to the central South Island, an area regarded as species poor due to glacial-extirpation of much of the biota. It appears that D. connectens survived across much of the South Island in a mosaic of ecological, rather than one or few, regional refugia. The Pleistocene biogeography of New Zealand in general is discussed in the light of this hypothesis.

Keywords  alpine; mitochondrial DNA; COI; phylogeography; Pleistocene glaciation

Z00027

Received 2 August 2000; accepted 10 April 2001

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2001, Vol. 28: 291-298

0301-4223/01/2803-0291 $7.00/0   (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2001

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (687K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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