PHYLOGENY AND EVOLUTION OF PARTHENOGENETIC WEEVILS OF THE ARAMIGUS TESSELLATUS SPECIES COMPLEX (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE: NAUPACTINI): EVIDENCE FROM MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES.

Molecular-phylogenetic studies of parthenogenetic animals have been a valuable recent addition to the literature on the evolutionary biology of sex. By illuminating the origins and ages of parthenogenetic lineages, such studies can help to define the temporal scale at which selection acts against parthenogenetic lineages, as well as provide an essential framework for further study. Although parthenogenetic weevils have played an important role in cytogenetic and protein-electrophoretic studies of parthenogenesis, they have not previously been subjects of DNA-based molecular-phylogenetic study. A mitochondrial DNA study of Aramigus tessellatus, a species complex of weevils native to South America, indentified 12 distinct (1-9% divergent) maternal lineages, of which 2 represent sexual populations, while at least 9 represent parthenogenetic lineages. These lineages partially correspond to lineages previously recognized by morphological differences. Phylogenetic analysis found 14 most parsimonious trees, according to which parthenogenesis appears to have arisen 3-7 times. There is a monophyletic group of lineages (the "brown clade"), having up to 4.5% sequence divergence within it, which may be primitively parthenogenetic and over 2 million years old. © 1996 The Society for the Study of Evolution.