Comparative phylogeography reveals a shared impact of Pleistocene environmental change in shaping genetic diversity within nine Anopheles mosquito species across the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot

Southeast Asia is one of the world’s richest regions in terms of biodiversity. An understanding of the distribution of diversity and the factors shaping it is lacking, yet essential for identifying conservation priorities for the region’s highly threatened biodiversity. Here we take a large scale comparative approach, combining data from nine forest associated Anopheles mosquito species and using statistical phylogeographic methods to disentangle the effects of environmental history, species specific ecology, and random coalescent effects. Spatially explicit modelling of Pleistocene demographic history supports a common influence of environmental events in shaping the genetic diversity of all species examined, despite differences in species' mtDNA gene trees. Populations were periodically restricted to allopatric northeastern and northwestern refugia, most likely due to Pleistocene forest fragmentation. Subsequent southwards post-glacial recolonisation is supported by a north-south grad...