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A molecular phylogeny of the Old World stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) and the non‐monophyly of the large genus Trigona
Author(s) -
RASMUSSEN CLAUS,
CAMERON SYDNEY A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
systematic entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1365-3113
pISSN - 0307-6970
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2006.00362.x
Subject(s) - biology , monophyly , sensu , clade , zoology , genus , apidae , taxon , hymenoptera , phylogenetics , ecology , biochemistry , gene
We examined the inter‐ and infrageneric relationships of Old World Meliponini with a near‐complete sampling of supra‐specific taxa. DNA sequences for the taxa were collected from four genes (mitochondrial 16S rRNA, nuclear long‐wavelength rhodopsin copy 1 (opsin), elongation factor‐1α copy F2 and arginine kinase). Additional sampling of New World taxa indicated that Trigona sensu lato is not monophyletic: Trigona from the Indo‐Malayan/Australasian Regions forms a large clade distantly related to the Neotropical Trigona . A separate clade comprises the Afrotropical meliponines, and includes the ‘minute’ species found in the Afrotropical, Indo‐Malayan and Australasian Regions. The Neotropical genus Melipona , by contrast with previous investigations, is not the sister lineage to the remaining stingless bees, but falls within the strongly supported Neotropical clade. These results constitute the framework for a revised classification and ongoing biological investigations of Meliponini. A single taxonomic change, Heterotrigona bakeri stat.n. , is proposed on the basis of sequence divergence.