An integrative approach to systematics and evolution of Trigonopterus, a hyperdiverse genus of flightless weevils from South Asia and the West Pacific
Evolution, Anthropology
Final Report Abstract
At the start of our project, Trigonopterus was a little-known genus of weevils containing 91 described species in need of revision. Neither their exceptionally high diversity in rainforest ecosystems of Melanesia had been appreciated, nor their high potential for use in fine-scaled biogeographic studies. In the course of our project, we have covered different aspects such as taxonomy, methods of species discovery, morphology, ecology, and biogeography, thus bringing Trigonopterus onto the world map of current zoological research. Our success has been substantiated e.g. by Minelli (2015, 2020) making extensive reference to our work, and numerous reports on our findings in public media. Thus, we have managed to provide a framework for additional studies. Once all obvious questions have been sufficiently covered, the evolution of this hyperdiverse genus may become a textbook example of a radiation rivaling the one of Hawaiian Drosophila or Caribbean Anolis. To date, we have sequence data representing 1.231 species of Trigonopterus at hand. This is a fantastic success beyond our expectations, since we began with only 80 species at the start of the project; at the end of phase 1 the landmark of 480 species was reached, at the end of phase 2 it was 800. Our expectation for phase 3 was to surpass 1.000. While there was no strict geographic order, phase 1 largely focused on Western Indonesia (Sundaland), phase 2 on Sulawesi, Australia and West Papua, and phase 3 largely on Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the West Pacific Islands. Thus, the geographical focus shifted from West to East, arriving at a well-balanced perspective of the biogeography.
Publications
- (2019). One hundred and three new species of Trigonopterus weevils from Sulawesi. ZooKeys 828: 1–153
Riedel, A. & Narakusumo, R.P.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.828.32200) - (2019). Seven new species of Trigonopterus Fauvel (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) from the Tanimbar Archipelago. ZooKeys 888: 75–93
Narakusumo R.P., Balke M & Riedel A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.888.38642) - (2020). Historical biogeography of the hyperdiverse hidden snout weevils (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Cryptorhynchinae). Systematic Entomology 45: 312–326
Letsch H., Balke M., Toussaint E.F.A. & Riedel A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12396) - (2020). Transgressing Wallace´s Line brings hyperdiverse weevils down to earth. Ecography 43(9): 1329–1340
Letsch H., Balke M., Toussaint E.F.A., Narakusumo R.P., Fiedler K. & Riedel A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05128) - Mitochondrial genomes of twelve species of hyperdiverse Trigonopterus weevils. PeerJ 8:e10017
Narakusumo, R.P, Riedel, A. &. Pons, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10017)
