Assessing relationships between Mediterranean and Afrotropical taxa of Cleonini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Lixinae): a survey based on Bayesian analysis and lineage geohistory reconstruction

Abstract

Relationships between the Mediterranean and southern African genera of Cleonini (Curculionidae) were assessed using preliminary phylogenetic analysis and palaeohistorical reconstruction by maximum likelihood inference of ancestral distributions. Intergeneric relationships were found to be present only between sister taxa belonging to basal branches of the trees, suggesting that the faunas of the two regions were connected only during the early stages of radiation of the tribe. A critical revision of the species composition of some Afro-Mediterranean genera revealed that only Pseudotemnorrhinus has a disjunct Mediterranean-southern African distribution. This is regarded as having been determined by a recent expansion of the range of the genus from the Mediterranean region towards southern Africa via the eastern Africa grasslands.