Molecular Weevil Identification Project: A thoroughly curated barcode release of 1300 Western Palearctic weevil species (Coleoptera, Curculionoidea).

The Molecular Weevil Identification project (MWI) studies the systematics of Western Palearctic weevils (superfamily Curculionoidea) in an integrative taxonomic approach of DNA barcoding, morphology and ecology. This barcode release provides almost 3600 curated CO1 sequences linked to morphological vouchers in about 1300 weevil species. The dataset is presented in statistical distance tables and as a Neighbour-Joining tree. Bayesian Inference trees are computed for the subfamilies Cryptorhynchinae, Apioninae and Ceutorhynchinae. Altogether, 18 unresolved taxonomic issues are discussed. A new barcode primer set is presented. Finally, we establish group-specific genetic distances for many weevil genera to serve as a tool in species delineation. These values are statistically based on distances between "good species" and their congeners. With this morphologically calibrated approach, we could resolve most alpha-taxonomic questions within the MWI project.

SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Natural Forest of Azores: II - A survey of exotic arthropods in disturbed forest habitats.

Background: The data we present consist of an inventory of exotic arthropods, potentially invasive, collected in exotic and mixed forests and disturbed native forest patches of the Azores Archipelago. The study was carried out between 2019 and 2020 in four islands: Corvo, Flores, Terceira and Santa Maria, where a total of 45 passive flight interception SLAM traps were deployed, during three to six consecutive months. This manuscript is the second contribution of the "SLAM Project - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the Natural Forest of Azores". New information: We provide an inventory of terrestrial arthropods belonging to Arachnida, Diplopoda, Chilopoda and Insecta classes from four Azorean islands. We identified a total of 21,175 specimens, belonging to 20 orders, 93 families and 249 species of arthropods. A total of 125 species are considered introduced, 89 native non-endemic and 35 endemic. We registered 34 new records (nine for Corvo, three for Flores, six for Terceira and 16 for Santa Maria), of which five are new for Azores, being all exotic possibly recently introduced: Dieckmanniellusnitidulus (Gyllenhal, 1838), Gronopsfasciatus Küster, 1851, Hadroplontustrimaculatus (Fabricius, 1775), Hypurusbertrandi (Perris, 1852) (all Coleoptera, Curculionidae) and Cardiocondylamauritanica Forel, 1890 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). This publication highlights the importance of planted forests and disturbed native forest patches as reservoirs of potentially invasive arthropods and refuges for some rare relict endemic arthropod species.

Molecular systematics and morphological identification of the cryptic species of the genus Acalles Schoenherr, 1825, with descriptions of new species (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cryptorhynchinae).

Molecular systematics and morphological study of the monophyletic weevil genus Acalles Schoenherr, 1825 are presented. Based on the mitochondrial CO1 barcoding gene and 16S ribosomal RNA gene, we discuss three difficult species complexes in the framework of a molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of 37 of 47 Western Palaearctic Acalles species or subspecies: the A. echinatus, A. maraoensis and A. sierrae complexes. Two results are given: 1. An exclusive focus on morphological, exoskeletal methods reach their limits in the case of many cryptic Cryptorhynchinae. In these cases molecular analysis is indispensable to resolve species level questions. 2. By using a combination of phenotypic and genotypic characters it is not only possible to ascertain phylogenetic relationships, but also to uncover new morphological, non-intraspecifical characteristics. Digital photography with image stacking makes this possible: for the first time we present photo key for Acalles species, a reliable, less costly and quick method for identification alongside DNA barcoding. The following taxonomic changes are given: Coloracalles edoughensis Desbrochers, 1892 comb. nov. (formerly Acalles edoughensis) from North Africa and Spain change to Coloracalles Astrin & Stüben, 2008 and Pseudodichromacalles xerampelinus Wollaston, 1864 comb. nov. from the Canarian Island Tenerife, Acalles bazaensis Stüben, 2001 syn. nov. is a junior synonym of Acalles sierrae H. Brisout, 1865. Two new species of Acalles s. str. , A. iblanensis Stüben sp. nov. from Morocco and A. vorsti Stüben sp. nov. from Spain (Mallorca), and a new species of the subgenus Origoacalles Stüben & Astrin 2010, A. granulimaculosus Stüben sp. nov. from La Gomera, are described. Acalles temperei Péricart, 1987 stat. nov. is a subspecies of A. parvulus Boheman, 1837. A catalogue of all 43 (+4 incertae sedis) species of Acalles is presented. Finally and for the first time we compare 9 of 12 known North American so-called "Acalles" species with the Western Palaearctic species of Acalles surrounding the type species Curculio camelus Fabricius, 1792. The morphological and molecular analysis for the New World Acalles show that none of the species from the United States actually belong to the genus Acalles or one of the other genera of Western Palaearctic Cryptorhynchinae. There is one exception: Acalles costifer Le Conte, 1884, is transferred to the phylogenetically basal genus Acallocrates Reitter, 1913 as Acallocrates costifer (LeConte, 1884) comb. nov. 

Molecular phylogeny of the weevil genus Dichromacalles Stuben (Curculionidae: Cryptorhynchinae) and description of a new species.

A molecular phylogeny of the western Palearctic weevil genus Dichromacalles Stuben, 1998, is presented, combining two mitochondrial genes, COI and 16S, and the nuclear gene 28S in a Bayesian analysis of up to 1528 combined nucleotide positions. Based on this data we point out the putative ancestor of the currently known extant Dichromacalles species that initiated the unique radiation within the species of the formerly Acalles s.l. on the Canary Islands around 10 to 20 million years ago. Where morphology reaches its limits in species differentiation, molecular analysis can provide deeper insight. By combining morphology and molecular biology into an integrative taxonomy, new characters can be found, making phenotypic descriptions easier. Using this integrative taxonomy background, the new species Dichromacalles algecirasensis Stuben (Spain: Cadiz) is described here and D. lentisci (Chevrolat, 1861) is transferred into the subgenus Balcanacalles Stuben & Behne, 1998 following a molecular phylogenetic reconstruction. A catalogue of all 12 species of Dichromacalles is given and a key is presented, combined with image stackings of the habitus and aedeagus for all species.

Exploring diversity in cryptorhynchine weevils (Coleoptera) using distance-, character- and tree-based species delineation.

Species boundaries are studied in a group of beetles, the western Palaearctic Cryptorhynchinae. We test for congruence of 'traditionally' identified morphospecies with species inferred through parsimony networks, distance-based clustering and the ultrametric tree-based generalized mixed yule-coalescent (GMYC) approach. For that purpose, we sequenced two variable fragments of mitochondrial DNA (CO1 and 16S) for a total of 791 specimens in 217 species of Cryptorhynchinae. Parsimony networks, morphology-calibrated distance clusters and the different tree-based species inferences all achieved low congruence with morphospecies, at best 60%. Although the degree of match with morphospecies was often similar for the different approaches, the composition of clusters partially varied. A barcoding gap was absent in morphospecies-oriented distances as well as for GMYC species clusters. This demonstrates that not only erroneous taxonomic assignments, incomplete lineage sorting, hybridization, or insufficient sampling can compromise distance-based identification, but also differences in speciation rates and uneven tree structure. The initially low match between morphospecies and the different molecular species delineation methods in this case study shows the necessity of combining the output of various methods in an integrative approach. Thereby we obtain an idea about the reliability of the different results and signals, which enables us to fine-tune sampling, delineation technique and data collection, and to identify species that require taxonomic revision.