Project description:We present a phylogeographic study of at least six reproductively isolated lineages of new world harvester ants within the Pogonomyrmex barbatus and P. rugosus species group. The genetic and geographic relationships within this clade are complex: Four of the identified lineages show genetic caste determination (GCD) and are divided into two pairs. Each pair has evolved under a mutualistic system that necessitates sympatry. These paired lineages are dependent upon one another because their GCD requires interlineage matings for the production of F1 hybrid workers, and intralineage matings are required to produce queens. This GCD system maintains genetic isolation among these interdependent lineages, while simultaneously requiring co-expansion and emigration as their distributions have changed over time. It has also been demonstrated that three of these four GCD lineages have undergone historical hybridization, but the narrower sampling range of previous studies has left questions on the hybrid parentage, breadth, and age of these groups. Thus, reconstructing the phylogenetic and geographic history of this group allows us to evaluate past insights and hypotheses and to plan future inquiries in a more complete historical biogeographic context. Using mitochondrial DNA sequences sampled across most of the morphospecies' ranges in the U.S.A. and Mexico, we conducted a detailed phylogeographic study. Remarkably, our results indicate that one of the GCD lineage pairs has experienced a dramatic range expansion, despite the genetic load and fitness costs of the GCD system. Our analyses also reveal a complex pattern of vicariance and dispersal in Pogonomyrmex harvester ants that is largely concordant with models of late Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene range shifts among various arid-adapted taxa in North America.
Project description:Although many lineages of terrestrial crustaceans have poor olfactory capabilities, crabs in the family Coenobitidae, including the terrestrial hermit crabs in the genus Coenobita, are able to locate food and water using olfactory antennae (antennules) to capture odors from the surrounding air. Terrestrial hermit crabs begin their lives as small marine larvae and must find a suitable place to undergo metamorphosis into a juvenile form, which initiates their transition to land. Juveniles increase in size by more than an order of magnitude to reach adult size. Since odor capture is a process heavily dependent on the size and speed of the antennules and physical properties of the fluid, both the transition from water to air and the large increase in size during ontogeny could impact odor capture. In this study, we examine two species of terrestrial hermit crabs, Coenobita perlatus H. Milne-Edwards and Coenobita rugosus H. Milne-Edwards, to determine how the antennule morphometrics and kinematics of flicking change in comparison to body size during ontogeny, and how this scaling relationship could impact odor capture by using a simple model of mass transport in flow. Many features of the antennules, including the chemosensory sensilla, scaled allometrically with carapace width and increased slower than expected by isometry, resulting in relatively larger antennules on juvenile animals. Flicking speed scaled as expected with isometry. Our mass-transport model showed that allometric scaling of antennule morphometrics and kinematics leads to thinner boundary layers of attached fluid around the antennule during flicking and higher odorant capture rates as compared to antennules which scaled isometrically. There were no significant differences in morphometric or kinematic measurements between the two species.
Project description:Numerous environmental factors can influence body size. Comparing populations in different ecological contexts is one potential approach to elucidating the most critical of such factors. In the current study, we found that the body size of the land hermit crab Coenobita rugosus was significantly larger on Dongsha Island in the South China Sea than on other eco-islands around Southern Taiwan. We hypothesized that this could be due to differences in (1) shell resources, (2) parasite impact, (3) competition, (4) predation, and (5) food. We found no supporting evidence for the first three hypotheses; the shells used by the hermit crabs on Dongsha were in poorer condition than were those used elsewhere, extremely few individuals in the region had ectoparasites, and the density of hermit crabs varied considerably among localities within each island. However, significantly higher percentages of C. rugosus reached age 3 years on Dongsha than at Siziwan bay in Taiwan. Two growth rate indices inferred from size structures suggested faster growth on Dongsha than at Siziwan. The condition index (i.e., the body mass/shield length ratio of C. rugosus) was also greater on Dongsha than at Siziwan. Therefore, Dongsha hermit crabs seem to have superior diet and growth performance. Seagrass debris accumulation at the shore of Dongsha was considerable, whereas none was observed at Siziwan or on the other islands, where dicot leaves were the dominant food item for the vegetarian hermit crabs. We then experimentally evaluated the possible role of seagrass as food for C. rugosus. The crabs on Dongsha preferred seagrass to dicot leaves, and their growth increment was faster when they fed on seagrass than when they fed on dicot leaves; no such differences were found in the Siziwan hermit crabs. The aforementioned results are compatible with the food hypothesis explaining the size differences among the islands. The predator hypothesis could explain the greater life span but not the other findings. Populations of C. rugosus on islands with seagrass debris piles probably contribute more to the gene pool of the species because higher proportions of these populations could achieve high fecundity. The fate of these terrestrial hermit crabs may rely on the health of underwater seagrass ecosystems that are under threat from global change.