Geographic variation in the African-Iberian ground beetle Rhabdotocarabus melancholicus (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and its taxonomical and biogeographical implications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/graellsia.1995.v51.i0.394Keywords:
Coleoptera, Carabidae, morphological variation, Biogeography, Mediterranean regionAbstract
A study of morphological variation among populations from southern Spain and northwestern Africa of Rhabdotocarabus melancholicus (Fabricius, 1798) shows that there is statistical support for the recognition of three taxa: R. m. submeridionalis (Breuning, 1975) distributed over southeastern Spain, R. m. dehesicola n. ssp. from southwestern Spain and southern Portugal and R. m. melancholicus geographically restricted to northwestern Africa. This new arrangement changes previous biogeographic pictures for the genus, since R. m. melancholicus is not present in Europe and the range of variation observed within Iberian R. melancholicus is increased with new endemic taxa. We propose that the current differentiation among taxa is the result of successive vicariance events caused by dramatic paleogeographic changes which have occurred in the western Mediterranean region since the Mio-Pliocene boundary.
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