Phylogeography in Thalassoduvalius masidai

The spatial genetic structures of insects are reflected in their habitats. Coastal insects tend to have smaller genetic differentiation than subterranean insects. However, the general pattern of population structure of coastal species reside in subterranean habitat is unknown. Thalassoduvalius masidai (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Trechinae), endemic to Japan, is a coastal and subterranean beetle. Here we hypothesised that T. masidai disperses among regions by ocean currents, floods and tsunamis, even though their habitat is underground. We performed phylogeographic analysis of T. masidai by using SNPs data from multiplexed inter-simple sequence repeat genotyping by sequencing (MIG-seq) to test this hypothesis.