Integrative taxonomy of the seasonally polyphenic scorpionfly Panorpa liui Hua, 1997 (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)

Seasonal polyphenism is a phenomenon where two or more phenotypes are produced from a single genotype in different seasons. This phenomenon, a special type of phenotypic plasticity, is one of the major reasons for the success of insects and is also one of the primary sources of synonymy generations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organisms diversity & evolution 2021-09, Vol.21 (3), p.533-545
Main Authors: Li, Ning, Jiang, Lu, Wang, Ji-Shen, Hua, Bao-Zhen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal morphology
Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Aquatic insects
Biodiversity
Biological effects
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Coloration
Colour
Developmental Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Genetic analysis
Genetic diversity
Genetic variation
Genotypes
Individual rearing
Insects
Life Sciences
Mecoptera
Mitochondria
Morphometry
Original Article
Panorpa
Phenotypes
Phenotypic plasticity
Phylogeny
Plant Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
rRNA 28S
Seasons
Species
Synonymy
Taxonomy
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Summary:Seasonal polyphenism is a phenomenon where two or more phenotypes are produced from a single genotype in different seasons. This phenomenon, a special type of phenotypic plasticity, is one of the major reasons for the success of insects and is also one of the primary sources of synonymy generations in insect taxonomy. Two nominal scorpionflies, Panorpa liui Hua, 1997 and Panorpa jilinensis Zhou, 2000 from the northeastern region of China, are very similar in morphology except for body coloration. However, whether they are conspecific or distinct species remains to be resolved. Here, we investigated these two nominal species through integrative taxonomy, including morphological variation analyses, geometric morphometrics of wing size and shape variations, genetic diversity, phylogenetic analyses based on two mitochondrial ( COI and COII ) and one nuclear ( 28S rRNA ) gene fragments, and biological rearing. The results show that P. liui Hua, 1997 is a bivoltine species of seasonal polyphenism in the lowland plain, exhibiting a black morph in the spring and a yellow morph in the summer. Panorpa jilinensis Zhou, 2000 syn. nov. is considered as a junior synonym of P. liui Hua, 1997 . The value of integrative taxonomy for species delimitation is discussed.
ISSN:1439-6092
1618-1077
DOI:10.1007/s13127-021-00498-9