Phylogeny Perisphaerus genus (Blaberidae, Perisphaerinae)

Collaborators: Fréderic Legendre (MNHN)

Perisphaerus genus (Blaberidae, Perisphaerinae) include cockroaches living in Africa and Indonesia. Multiple radiation events have been describe in the Indonesian region, starting from birds by Wallace (1863) who assumed the physical geographic history as a diversification driver isolating various population on different islands (peripatric speciation).

However, the relationships of Perisphaerus with other genus remain unclear, preventing the study of the Wallacean hypothesis. While lots of species remain undescribed, Perisphaerus delimitation stay obscur with Pseudoglomeris, Corydidarum and Trichoblatta (all synonymous for the same species), using the unique capacity of Perisphaerus to roll up in a full ball as a discrimination factor (Li et al., 2018).

We thus realised a molecular phylogeny of Perisphaerus, Pseudoglomeris, Corydidarum and Trichoblatta species living in the Indonesian area (from China to Australia) in order to clarify the taxonomy and systematic of this group.

On the left (from Li et al., 2018): (1) a Pseudoglomeris couple breeding, and a female forming a ball (2 & 3). On the right a capture of the Indo-australian area showing emerged lands arround 18 thousand years ago with the Wallacea limited by the Wallace and Lydekker's lines (from Harrison et al., 2006).

References

Harrison, T., Krigbaum, J. & Manser, J. (2006) Primate Biogeography and Ecology on the Sunda Shelf Islands: A Paleontological and Zooarchaeological Perspective. In Primate Biogeography. Springer US, pp. 331–372.

Li, X.-R., Wang, L.-L. & Wang, Z.-Q. (2018) Rediscovered and new perisphaerine cockroaches from SW China with a review of subfamilial diagnosis (Blattodea: Blaberidae). Zootaxa, 4410, 251–290.

Wallace, A.R. (1863) On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago. The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 33, 217–234.