Publication details

Species Separation within, and Preliminary Phylogeny for, the Leafhopper Genus Anoscopus with Particular Reference to the Putative British Endemic Anoscopus duffieldi (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

Authors	REDIHOUGH Joanna RUSSO Isa-Rita M. STEWART Alan J. A. MALENOVSKÝ Igor STOCKDALE Jennifer E. MOORHOUSE-GANN Rosemary J. WILSON Michael R. SYMONDSON William O. C.
Year of publication	2020
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Insects
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Science
Citation
Web	https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11110799
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11110799
Keywords	Anoscopus duffieldi; Aphrodinae; Cicadellidae; Endemic species; Genetic distance; Molecular separation
Attached files	Redihough_et_al_2020_Anoscopus.pdf
Description	The subfamily Aphrodinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) contains similar to 33 species in Europe within four genera. Species in two genera in particular, Aphrodes and Anoscopus, have proved to be difficult to distinguish morphologically. Our aim was to determine the status of the putative species Anoscopus duffieldi, found only on the RSPB Nature Reserve at Dungeness, Kent, a possible rare UK endemic. DNA from samples of all seven UK Anoscopus species (plus Anoscopus alpinus from the Czech Republic) were sequenced using parts of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and 16S rRNA genes. Bayesian inference phylogenies were created. Specimens of each species clustered into monophyletic groups, except for Anoscopus albifrons, A. duffieldi and Anoscopus limicola. Two A. albifrons specimens grouped with A. duffieldi repeatedly with strong support, and the remaining A. albifrons clustered within A. limicola. Genetic distances suggest that A. albifrons and A. limicola are a single interbreeding population (0% divergence), while A. albifrons and A. duffieldi diverged by only 0.28%. Shared haplotypes between A. albifrons, A. limicola and A. duffieldi strongly suggest interbreeding, although misidentification may also explain these topologies. However, all A. duffieldi clustered together in the trees. A conservative approach might be to treat A. duffieldi, until other evidence is forthcoming, as a possible endemic subspecies.