If the tape were played again: Lineage evolution and the causes of
phylogenetic similarity in two tropical assemblages of Coleoptera
Abstract
Communities of insects around the world consist of unique sets of
species that have evolved under different historical processes of
assembly and lineage diversification. Whole-community phylogenetics can
partition the shared and uniquely derived evolutionary history at sites.
We used mitochondrial genome sequences of >1000 species each
from two assemblages of Coleoptera (beetles) in distantly situated
tropical lowland rainforest of Malaysia and Panama for phylogenetic
reconstruction and community ecological analysis. Assemblages were
entirely distinct at species level but were surprisingly similar at
family level in their overall composition and relative species richness,
despite a high degree of phylogenetic clustering that implied
independent evolution. Inclusion of species poor lineages reduced the
level of community clustering in parallel in both sites, indicating
lineage-specific factors to determine species richness and their effect
on local community composition. In conclusion, relative species richness
in local community composition and global clade sizes are connected, in
part due to biotic exchange in deep time, but more likely because of
intrinsic rates of diversification unique to each clade (family), thus
making assembly composition more predictable, i.e. the ‘evolutionary
tape’ would be similar wherever a new assemblage of tropical-forest
Coleoptera arises.