Concepts of island biogeography, Australasian Copelatinae

Ever since Darwin and Wallace, island biodiversity and evolution of faunal diversity on islands have intrigued biologists. In the present project, we are going to test some theories of island biogeography using diving beetles of the subfamily Copelatinae in Australasia. This region is attractive for scientific research not only because it is one of remaining major tropical wilderness areas with a very rich biodiversity, but also because of the complexity of its geological origin and colonization history in combination with the scarcity of information on all of them. No data on water beetles from many parts of the region were available until scientists of ZSM and NHMW initiated a study on diving beetles (Dytiscidae) in 1995. Copelatinae is the second largest subfamily of Dytiscidae and one of its most taxonomically and phylogenetically enigmatic groups. In Australasia, the subfamily is represented by its speciose genera: Copelatus Erichson, 1832 and Exocelina Broun, 1886. While the latter has been well studied in our previous project, Copelatus remains poorly examined being the most species-rich and taxonomically challenging genus of Dytiscidae. The main project goal is to investigate the evolution of the species diversity of Copelatinae in the complex geological and ecological environment of Australasia using the obtained relationship hypotheses. We will 1) carry out a taxonomic study of Copelatus, 2) describe new species based on morphological and molecular data, 3) analyze relationships within the genus based on molecular data, 4) investigate the character evolution of the genus, 5) continue to study Exocelina: new species descriptions, biogeographical analyses, 6) study biogeographical and ecological aspects of the subfamily. The project will be carried out at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien by Dr H. Shaverdo, and is planned as an international cooperation with Dr M. Balke and Dr L. Hendrich, Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Germany and Dr J. Hjek, Nrodn Museum Praha, Prague, Czechia. We believe that our project is of great importance since it will bring new data in two aspects. First, its results will test several general concepts in island biogeography, which explain how species colonize islands and develop on them, how new species appear and old species disappear, why there are many endemics on islands, how island geological history affects all these processes, as well as more than 80 species new to science will be described. The second aspect is important for the group: a) for the first time, the genus Copelatus will be studied using molecular and morphological data to reconstruct the biogeographical evolution of this group; b) a new preliminary classification of Copelatus will be proposed; c) first identification tables, illustrated with drawings and digital images, will be created. Results of our project will have an implication not only for other biological disciplines (e.g. ecology, and nature inventory and conservation) but also for popularization of nature study and conservation and training of local people as entomologists.

No additional funding sources recorded.