A review of Madagopsina Feijen, Feijen & Feijen (Diptera, Diopsidae) with description of a new species, key to the species, and discussion of intrageneric relationships.

For the recently established genus Madagopsina (Diopsidae, stalk-eyed flies), Madagopsinamakayensis Feijen, Feijen & Feijen, sp. nov. is described from Madagascar. A concise catalogue is given for the genus and an identification key is presented for its six species. The differential character states are listed for the two species groups of the genus: the Madagopsinaapollo species group and the Madagopsinaapographica species group. The intrageneric relations are discussed based on morphology, geometric morphometrics analysis of wing shape, and allometric data for eye span against body length. Each of these three procedures places the new species in the M.apollo species group with Madagopsinaparvapollina as its closest relative. New records are presented for M.apographica and M.parvapollina.

Evolutionary dynamics of mycorrhizal symbiosis in land plant diversification.

Mycorrhizal symbiosis between soil fungi and land plants is one of the most widespread and ecologically important mutualisms on earth. It has long been hypothesized that the Glomeromycotina, the mycorrhizal symbionts of the majority of plants, facilitated colonization of land by plants in the Ordovician. This view was recently challenged by the discovery of mycorrhiza-like associations with Mucoromycotina in several early diverging lineages of land plants. Utilizing a large, species-level database of plants' mycorrhiza-like associations and a Bayesian approach to state transition dynamics we here show that the recruitment of Mucoromycotina is the best supported transition from a non-mycorrhizal state. We further found that transitions between different combinations of either or both of Mucoromycotina and Glomeromycotina occur at high rates, and found similar promiscuity among combinations that include either or both of Glomeromycotina and Ascomycota with a nearly fixed association with Basidiomycota. Our results portray an evolutionary scenario of evolution of mycorrhizal symbiosis with a prominent role for Mucoromycotina in the early stages of land plant diversification.

Evolution of endemism on a young tropical mountain.

Tropical mountains are hot spots of biodiversity and endemism, but the evolutionary origins of their unique biotas are poorly understood. In varying degrees, local and regional extinction, long-distance colonization, and local recruitment may all contribute to the exceptional character of these communities. Also, it is debated whether mountain endemics mostly originate from local lowland taxa, or from lineages that reach the mountain by long-range dispersal from cool localities elsewhere. Here we investigate the evolutionary routes to endemism by sampling an entire tropical mountain biota on the 4,095-metre-high Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia. We discover that most of its unique biodiversity is younger than the mountain itself (6 million years), and comprises a mix of immigrant pre-adapted lineages and descendants from local lowland ancestors, although substantial shifts from lower to higher vegetation zones in this latter group were rare. These insights could improve forecasts of the likelihood of extinction and 'evolutionary rescue' in montane biodiversity hot spots under climate change scenarios.