Macroscale evolutionary patterns of flight muscle dimorphism in the carrion beetle Necrophila japonica

Abstract Some insect species exhibit polymorphisms in flight muscles or wings, which provide opportunities for studying the factors that drive dispersal polymorphisms and the evolution of flightlessness in insects. We investigated the macroscale evolutionary pattern of flightlessness in the widespread Japanese beetle Necrophila japonica (Coleoptera: Silphidae), which exhibits flight muscle dimorphisms using phylogeographic approaches. N. japonica lives in both stable and unstable habitats, and the flight muscle dimorphisms may have been maintained through the use of these diverse habitats. We studied the distribution pattern of the proportion of individuals lacking flight muscles in relation to the genetic differentiation among geographic populations using an 842‐base pair sequence of the COI‐II gene. Both flight‐capable and flightless individuals occurred over the distribution area, and the flight muscle condition showed no significant phylogeographic pattern. Several populations comprised flight‐capable individuals only, whereas few comprised flightless ones only. Demographic expansion was suggested for major clades of COI‐II haplotypes, and the genetic differentiation showed an isolation‐by‐distance pattern among the populations in Japan. The proportion of flightless individuals was higher in a population with a higher annual mean temperature and with higher genetic diversity among individuals. These results indicate that geographic expansion occurred recently while flight muscle dimorphisms have been maintained, that flight‐capable individuals have colonized cooler (peripheral) habitats, and that flightlessness has increased in long‐persisting populations as suggested by high genetic diversity.