Genomics Reveals Widespread Ecological Speciation in Flightless Insects.

Abstract

Recent genomic analyses have highlighted parallel divergence in response to ecological gradients, but the extent to which altitude can underpin such repeated speciation remains unclear. Wing reduction and flight loss have apparently evolved repeatedly in montane insect assemblages and have been suggested as important drivers of hexapod diversification. We test this hypothesis using genomic analyses of a widespread wing-polymorphic stonefly species complex in New Zealand. We identified over 50,000 polymorphic genetic markers generated across almost 200 Zelandoperla fenestrata stonefly specimens using a newly generated plecopteran reference genome, to reveal widespread parallel speciation betw..