Biogeografia de vespas solitárias (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae) das regiões neotropical e andina

Abstract

Biogeography is the study of the distributional patterns of the life’s diversity on Earth and the processes that determine these patterns. There is a large shortfall of biogeographic knowledge for the vast majority of taxa and this can be demonstrated by the absence of distributional records for most of the world species and also by the scarce formal and explicity methodological studies describing the biogeography of groups of organisms. Therefore, this PhD dissertation presents, in two chapters, biogeographic studies involving a group of insects not yet carefully investigated through the lens of Biogeography: the potter wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae) that occur in the Neotropical and Andean regions. In the first chapter, it is proposed to identify Areas of Endemism (AoE) of the Eumeninae in the Neotropical/Andean regions, using as a method the Endemicity Analysis (EA), at different geographic scales and with two analytical approaches. From the identified AoE, consensus areas were inferred and the overlapping of these, at different scales, resulted in generalized biogeographic components for the Eumeninae in the Neotropical/Andean regions. The following generalized biogeographic components were defined: (i) Antilles (Ant); (ii) Mesoamerica (MsA); (iii) Panamanian Isthmus (IstPn); (iv) Guyanas (Guy); (v) Central Amazon (AmC); (vi) Northern Andes (AnN); Central Andes (AnC); Southern Andes (AnS); and (vii) Chaco-Paranaense region (ChPa). The identified components were discussed and compared with proposed bioregionalizations for other groups, highlighting congruent patterns. In the second chapter, a phylogeographic approach was used to determine the distribution patterns of the potter wasp species Pachymenes ater (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (AF). Genomic DNA was extracted and sequenced by New Generation Sequencing (NGS) from samples of P. ater, collected along the range of the species, obtaining loci that correspond to ultra-conserved elements (UCEs). Captured loci were concatenated into a matrix; aligned; and submitted to a phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood as an optimality criteria. The potential distribution of P. ater was estimated through Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) based on the occurrence records of the species present in the literature. From the inferred phylogenetic tree, it was possible to infer the Doce River as a probable geographic barrier dividing two populations of P. ater: one population was identified northern of the Doce river, in the central region of FA (CAF), and another population southern of the Doce river (SAF). The SAF population did not show geographic structure and we did not find evidence of geographic barriers that could limit the distribution of P. ater below the Doce river. A greater sampling effort is necessary in areas such as northeast and central Brazil for suply the biogeographical shortfall for Neotropical potter wasps. In addition, future studies should look for an integration of geographic data with the divergence times of the main Eumeninae Neotropical and Andean lineages, and a correlation between these and major biogeographic events.