If the tape were played again: Lineage evolution and the causes of phylogenetic similarity in two tropical assemblages of Coleoptera

Communities of insects around the world consist of unique sets of species
that have evolved under different historical processes of assembly and
lineage diversification. Whole-community phylogenetics can partition the
shared and uniquely derived evolutionary history at sites. We used
mitochondrial genome sequences of >1000 species each from two
assemblages of Coleoptera (beetles) in distantly situated tropical lowland
rainforest of Malaysia and Panama for phylogenetic reconstruction and
community ecological analysis. Assemblages were entirely distinct at
species level but were surprisingly similar at family level in their
overall composition and relative species richness, despite a high degree
of phylogenetic clustering that implied independent evolution. Inclusion
of species poor lineages reduced the level of community clustering in
parallel in both sites, indicating lineage-specific factors to determine
species richness and their effect on local community composition. In
conclusion, relative species richness in local community composition and
global clade sizes are connected, in part due to biotic exchange in deep
time, but more likely because of intrinsic rates of diversification unique
to each clade (family), thus making assembly composition more predictable,
i.e. the ‘evolutionary tape’ would be similar wherever a new assemblage of
tropical-forest Coleoptera arises.