Phylogeny of the African ball-rolling dung beetle genus Epirinus Reiche (Coleoptera : Scarabaeidae : Scarabaeinae)

摘要

Recent phylogenetic analyses have pointed to the dung beetle genus Epirinus as theputative African ancestral roller group. Consequently, we tested the roller status of species in thegenus with observational studies and constructed a molecular phylogeny based on partialsequences of two mitochondrial and two nuclear genes for 16 of 29 species. Tested species wereconfirmed to be dung rollers. Monophyly of the genus was confirmed, lending support to thesynonymy of the wingless genus Endroedyantus with Epirinus. Moreover, the phylogenetichypothesis was found to have a similar topology with a previously published one based onmorphological data. A combined molecular/morphology analysis showed congruence betweenthe molecular and morphological datasets. The loss of flight in some species and estimateddivergence dates within Epirinus are discussed.