Comparative phylogenetic analysis reveals long‐term isolation of lineages on the T hree K ings I slands, N ew Z ealand

We have used comparative phylogenetic analysis to infer the age and biogeographical origins of the T hree K ings I slands insect fauna, an archipelago only 56 km off the northern tip of N ew Z ealand. We densely sampled six insect lineages (five C oleoptera, B rachynopus latus , B rachynopus scutellaris , T arphiomimus spp., E pistranus lawsoni , and S yrphetodes spp., and one P hasmatodea, P seudoclitarchus sentus ) throughout N ew Z ealand and sequenced mitochondrial DNA to assess phylogenetic relationships and determine ages of haplotype lineages on the T hree K ings Islands. We recovered two biogeographical patterns. The first pattern was seen in three taxa, B . latus , S yrphetodes spp., and E . lawsoni , which had sister group relationships between the T hree K ings and the adjacent N orth C ape region at the very northern tip of N ew Z ealand. The second pattern, inferred in P . sentus , B . scutellaris , and T arphiomimus spp., was where T hree K ings lineages had sister groups that were widespread throughout most or all of N ew Z ealand. The divergence dates, estimated using a range of previously estimated substitution rates, ranged from as old as 24 M ya in B . scutellaris to as young as 2.24 M ya in Tarphiomimus . These results are consistent with continual emergent land on the T hree K ings R idge since at least the M iocene and a lack of land connections between the T hree K ings Islands and mainland N ew Z ealand during P leistocene sea‐level lowering. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2012, 108 , 361–377.