Revision of M ecinus heydenii species complex ( C urculionidae): integrative taxonomy reveals multiple species exhibiting host specialization

A combined taxonomic, morphological, molecular and biological study revealed that the species presently named M ecinus heydenii is actually composed of five different species: M . heydenii Wencker, 1866; M. raphaelis B aviera & C aldara sp. n., M . laeviceps Tournier, 1873; M. peterharrisi Toševski & Caldara sp. n. and M . bulgaricus Angelov, 1971. These species can be distinguished from each other by a few subtle characteristics, mainly in the shape of the rostrum and body of the penis, and the colour of the integument. The first four species live on different species of L inaria plants, respectively, L . vulgaris (L.) P . Mill., L . purpurea ( L .) P . Mill. L . genistifolia ( L .) P . Mill. and L . dalmatica ( L .) P . Mill., whereas the host plant of M . bulgaricus is still unknown. An analysis of mt COII gene sequence data revealed high genetic divergence among these species, with uncorrected pairwise distances of 9% between M . heydenii and M . raphaelis , 11.5% between M . laeviceps, M . heydenii and M . raphaelis , while M . laeviceps and M . peterharrisi are approximately 6.3% divergent from each other. M ecinus bulgaricus exhibits even greater divergence from all these species and is more closely related to M . dorsalis Aubé, 1850. Sampled populations of M . laeviceps form three geographical subspecies: M . laeviceps laeviceps , M . laeviceps meridionalis Toševski & Jović and M . laeviceps corifoliae Toševski & Jović. These subspecies show clear genetic clustering with uncorrected mt DNA COII divergences of approximately 1.4% from each other.