How old are the rove beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) and their lineages? Seeking an answer with DNA

Large carrion and burying beetles evolved from Staphylinidae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Silphinae): a review of the evidence

Large carrion beetles (Silphidae) are the focus of ongoing behavioral ecology, forensic, ecological, conservation, evolutionary, systematic, and other research, and were recently reclassified as a subfamily of Staphylinidae. Twenty-three analyses in 21 publications spanning the years 1927-2023 that are relevant to the question of the evolutionary origin and taxonomic classification of Silphidae are reviewed. Most of these analyses (20) found Silphidae nested inside Staphylinidae (an average of 4.38 branches deep), two found Silphidae in an ambiguous position, and one found Silphidae outside Staphylinidae, as sister to Hydrophilidae. There is strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that large carrion beetles evolved from within Staphylinidae and good justification for their classification as the subfamily Silphinae of the megadiverse, and apparently now monophyletic, Staphylinidae. Considerable uncertainty remains regarding the interrelationships and monophyly of many staphylinid subfamilies. Nonetheless, the subfamily Tachyporinae was found to be the sister of Silphinae in more analyses (7) than any other subfamily.

Higher-level phylogenetic relationships of rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) inferred from mitochondrial genome sequences

Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) and allied families constitute a huge radiation of Coleoptera, but basal relationships in this group remain controversial. In this study, we newly sequenced eight mitogenomes of representatives of Staphylinidae by using next-generation sequencing method. Together with 99 existing mitogenomes of Staphyliniformia, (sub)family relationships were investigated with ML and Bayesian searches under various substitution models and data recoding schemes. The results consistently supported Scydmaenidae and Silphidae to be subordinate groups of Staphylinidae. Within the monophyletic Staphylinidae (including Scydmaenidae and Silphidae), the hypothesis of four major subfamily groups cannot be confirmed. Bayesian inferences under the site-heterogeneous mixture model generally supported the basal position of major clades corresponding to the Omaliine group. At the subfamily level, the monophyly of Pselaphinae, Oxytelinae, Scaphidiinae, Steninae and Staphylininae was supported. However, the subfamilies Omaliinae, Tachyporinae, Aleocharinae and Paederinae were each non-monophyletic.

Linking evolutionary mode to palaeoclimate change reveals rapid radiations of staphylinoid beetles in low-energy conditions

Staphylinoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) is one of the most species-rich groups in animals, but its huge diversity can hardly be explained by the popular hypothesis (co-radiation with angiosperms) that applies to phytophagous beetles. We estimated the evolutionary mode of staphylinoid beetles and investigated the relationship between the evolutionary mode and palaeoclimate change, and thus the factors underlying the current biodiversity pattern of staphylinoid beetles. Our results demonstrate that staphylinoid beetles originated at around the Triassic-Jurassic bound and the current higher level clades underwent rapid evolution (indicated by increased diversification rate and decreased body size disparity) in the Jurassic and in the Cenozoic, both with low-energy climate, and they evolved much slower during the Cretaceous with high-energy climate. Climate factors, especially low O2 and high CO2, promoted the diversification rate and among-clade body size disparification in the Jurassic. In the Cenozoic, however, climate factors had negative associations with diversification rate but little with body size disparification. Our present study does not support the explosion of staphylinoid beetles as a direct outcome of the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution (KTR). We suppose that occupying and diversifying in refuge niches associated with litter may elucidate rapid radiations of staphylinoid beetles in low-energy conditions.

The Oldest Representative of the Rove Beetle Tribe Pinophilini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), from Upper Cretaceous Burmese Amber

The recently reviewed subtribe Procirrina comprises eight extant genera with a predominately (sub)tropical distribution. Previous phylogenies consistently recover the tribe Pinophilini of the subfamily Paederinae monophyletic. No fossils of the tribe have been described, although compression fossils are known from the Cenozoic Green River Formation (50.3-46.2 Ma) as well as inclusions from the Miocene Dominican (20.43-13.65 Ma) and Mexican (20-15 Ma) ambers. Here we describe †Cretoprocirrus trichotos Jenkins Shaw and Żyła gen. et sp. n., the oldest fossil representative of the tribe Pinophilini, from Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber (ca. 99 Ma). Phylogenetic analyses of morphological data allow its unambiguous placement in the subtribe Procirrina. †Cretoprocirrus trichotos is the second genus of Paederinae described from Burmese amber and provides an important insight into the evolution of the subfamily.

The phylogenetic diversity of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei isolates from southwest China revealed by multi genes

The larval plerocercoid of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei can parasitize humans, causing a serious food borne parasitic zoonosis known as sparganosis. Sparganosis have increased in China in recent years. In this study, the prevalence of sparganum infection in wild frogs in 9 geographical areas in southwest China was firstly investigated. Of 276 caught frogs, 55 frogs were found to be infected with sparganum. Then, the population genetic structure of these sparganum isolates was explored based on four molecular markers (cytb, cox1, rrnS and 28S rDNA D1). Highly genetic diversity and the genetic differentiation among sparganum isolates from different sites were revealed in the DNA polymorphism analyses. Both the phylogenetic inference and the analysis of the median-joining network supported two clades in the southwest S. erinaceieuropaei population. However, none demographic population expansion of the southwest S. erinaceieuropaei population was observed in the neutrality test, mismatch distribution analysis and Bayesian skyline plot analysis. Finally, the phylogenetic diversity of S. erinaceieuropaei from eastern, central, southern and southwest China was analyzed, the result suggested that Chinese S. erinaceieuropaei population should be divided into two groups (Group I and Group II), and they started to divergence in the middle Pliocene.