Cargando…

Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species

Biological invasions are a grave threat to ecosystems. The black garden ant (Lasius niger) is a pest species in Europe. Current literature states that L. niger occupies a disjunct native distribution in the Holarctic, however, based on recent work, we re-evaluate this distribution. The native range...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schär, Sämi, Talavera, Gerard, Rana, Jignasha D., Espadaler, Xavier, Cover, Stefan P., Shattuck, Steven O., Vila, Roger
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8993915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35396496
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10047-9
_version_ 1784684005697781760
author Schär, Sämi
Talavera, Gerard
Rana, Jignasha D.
Espadaler, Xavier
Cover, Stefan P.
Shattuck, Steven O.
Vila, Roger
author_facet Schär, Sämi
Talavera, Gerard
Rana, Jignasha D.
Espadaler, Xavier
Cover, Stefan P.
Shattuck, Steven O.
Vila, Roger
author_sort Schär, Sämi
collection PubMed
description Biological invasions are a grave threat to ecosystems. The black garden ant (Lasius niger) is a pest species in Europe. Current literature states that L. niger occupies a disjunct native distribution in the Holarctic, however, based on recent work, we re-evaluate this distribution. The native range of L. niger is reconsidered based on phylogenetic relationships (nine mitochondrial and nuclear markers, 5670 bp), DNA-barcoding (98 Holarctic specimens), morphometry (88 Holarctic specimens, 19 different measurements) and subjective assessment of phenotype. The potential spread of this species is estimated using ecological niche modeling. Lasius niger is more closely related to other Palearctic species than to the Nearctic ants known under this name. The latter are described as a distinct species, L. ponderosae sp. nov. However, DNA-barcoding discovered established populations of L. niger in metropolitan areas in Canada (Vancouver and Halifax). We describe a morphometrical method to delineate L. ponderosae sp. nov. and L. niger. MtDNA diversity and divergence is high within L. ponderosae sp. nov., but low within L. niger. More than 1,000,000 km(2) are suitable as a habitat for L. niger in North America. This case emphasizes the critical role of integrative taxonomy to detect cryptic species and identify potential biological invasions in their nascent stages.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8993915
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-89939152022-04-11 Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species Schär, Sämi Talavera, Gerard Rana, Jignasha D. Espadaler, Xavier Cover, Stefan P. Shattuck, Steven O. Vila, Roger Sci Rep Article Biological invasions are a grave threat to ecosystems. The black garden ant (Lasius niger) is a pest species in Europe. Current literature states that L. niger occupies a disjunct native distribution in the Holarctic, however, based on recent work, we re-evaluate this distribution. The native range of L. niger is reconsidered based on phylogenetic relationships (nine mitochondrial and nuclear markers, 5670 bp), DNA-barcoding (98 Holarctic specimens), morphometry (88 Holarctic specimens, 19 different measurements) and subjective assessment of phenotype. The potential spread of this species is estimated using ecological niche modeling. Lasius niger is more closely related to other Palearctic species than to the Nearctic ants known under this name. The latter are described as a distinct species, L. ponderosae sp. nov. However, DNA-barcoding discovered established populations of L. niger in metropolitan areas in Canada (Vancouver and Halifax). We describe a morphometrical method to delineate L. ponderosae sp. nov. and L. niger. MtDNA diversity and divergence is high within L. ponderosae sp. nov., but low within L. niger. More than 1,000,000 km(2) are suitable as a habitat for L. niger in North America. This case emphasizes the critical role of integrative taxonomy to detect cryptic species and identify potential biological invasions in their nascent stages. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8993915/ /pubmed/35396496 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10047-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Schär, Sämi
Talavera, Gerard
Rana, Jignasha D.
Espadaler, Xavier
Cover, Stefan P.
Shattuck, Steven O.
Vila, Roger
Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
title Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
title_full Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
title_fullStr Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
title_full_unstemmed Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
title_short Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in North American Lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
title_sort integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in north american lasius ants, and an overlooked introduced species
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8993915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35396496
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10047-9
work_keys_str_mv AT scharsami integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies
AT talaveragerard integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies
AT ranajignashad integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies
AT espadalerxavier integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies
AT coverstefanp integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies
AT shattucksteveno integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies
AT vilaroger integrativetaxonomyrevealscrypticdiversityinnorthamericanlasiusantsandanoverlookedintroducedspecies