Species group of Poecilimon luschani (orthoptera, tettigoniidae): Taxonomy, phylogeny and phylogeography

Poecilimon luschani species group distributed from South-east end of Anatolia to Rhodopian Mountains. Currently, there are four species and one subspecies in the group considered to be valid. In this study, phylogeny, speciation and phylogeography of the group were investigated using sequences of COI. For this aim, we determined 85 different haplotypes (four belonging to outgroups and others to ingroup species) from 242 COI sequences. Phylogenetic analyses applied to these haplotypes suggested relationship among P. ledereri + (P. tuncayi + (P. egrigozi + P. cf. luschani-Balıkesir) + P. orbelicus + (P. birandi + P. luschani)). Molecular clock estimations suggested that P. ledereri shared a last common ancestor with others around 4,14 million years ago and the remaining species shared a last common ancestor with others around 2,8 million years ago. The analysis also estimated the last common ancestor for P. birandi and P.luschani. The following conclusions were made for diversification and phylogeography of the species group: (i) The P. luschani group radiated from an Anatolian ancestral stock. (ii) Radiation of the group correlates with Pleistocene. (iii) The heterogeneous topography of Anatolia possibly has played an important role on diversification of the group. (iv) The faunal exchange between Anatolia and Balkans, in respect to the P. luschani group, is prior to occurrence of Dardanel. (v) Western Anatolian Taurus are hotspot of biodiversity either in species or genetic diversities.There are phylogenetic and taxonomical aspects of data set. The following conclusions were arrived by combining phenotypical bioaccousitic and morphological characters with phylogenetic tree obtained from genetic data. (i) P. luschani species group is monophyletic. (ii) Phenotypic characters defined from song and morphology has limited information for taxonomy of the group. Uninformativeness of the song is possibly due to allopatric speciation pattern of the group. (iii) The morphological structures traditionally using in taxonomy of the Poecilimon show homoplasies in such a small group. (iv) The three data sources suggest a taxonomical rectification for the group. (v) The range of P. birandi is restricted with some pats of Antalya and other records possibly indicate to misidentifications.