Meeting Abstract

P1.35  Friday, Jan. 4  Differential Pleistocene diversification and phylogeographic patterns on New Zealand’s North Island ELLIS, E*; SIMON, C; MARSHALL, D; HILL, K; OWEN, C; KAMP, P; Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs; Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs; Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs; Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs; Univ. of Waikato eellis@umail.ucsb.edu

Comparative biogeographers have long questioned the extent to which co-distributed species respond similarly to environmental change. The best evidence for such responses would be identical patterns of cladogenesis in multiple co-distributed taxa. Complete evolutionary independence–where each species responds differently to environmental stimuli–would be of no predictive value for unstudied species. Phylogeographic patterns were examined for six North Island, New Zealand forest and shrub cicada taxa in the genus Kikihia based on mitochondrial DNA data. New Zealand is an excellent place to conduct phylogeographic research due to its well-studied and rapidly changing landsape. During the Pleistocene, NZ experienced glaciers, low temperatures, and dramatic vegetational shifts. Such habitat-modification events would displace animals. Many forest species were hypothesized to have existed only in small refugia during glacial maxima. Five species of cicada show various degrees of concordance with intraspecific mitochondrial clade biogeographic boundaries found in previously studied taxa. A previously unidentified zone of interest was found in the East Cape region. Four species of Kikihia analyzed appear to have been most affected by previous glacial cycles, rather than the most recent glacial cycle, as was hypothesized, and must have persisted in isolated glacial refugia (contributing to diversification). We compared our results to phylogeographic patterns present in other invertebrate taxa in an attempt to determine common boundaries and the geological events most likely to be important in genetic differentiation.