Ecological gradients drive insect wing loss and speciation: the role of the alpine treeline

Alpine ecosystems are frequently characterised by an abundance of wing-reduced insect species, but the drivers of this biodiversity remain poorly understood. Insect wing reduction in these environments has variously been attributed to altitude, temperature, isolation, habitat stability, or decreased habitat size. We used fine-scale ecotypic and genomic analyses, along with broad-scale distributional analyses of ecotypes, to unravel the ecological drivers of wing reduction in the wing-dimorphic stonefly Zelandoperla fenestrata complex. Altitudinal transects within populations revealed dramatic wing reduction over very fine spatial scales, tightly linked to the alpine treeline. Broad biogeographic analyses confirm that the treeline has a much stronger effect on these ecotype distributions than altitude per se. Molecular analyses revealed parallel genomic divergence between vestigial-winged (high altitude) and full-winged (low altitude) ecotypes across distinct streams. These data thus hig...

高山生态系统常以大量翅退化昆虫物种为典型特征，但该类生物多样性的驱动机制仍不甚明晰。此类环境中的昆虫翅退化现象，曾被分别归因于海拔、温度、隔离度、生境稳定性，抑或是生境面积缩减。我们采用精细尺度的生态型与基因组分析方法，结合生态型的大尺度分布分析，以解析翅二态石蝇Zelandoperla fenestrata复合类群的翅退化生态驱动机制。种群内的海拔样带分析显示，在极小空间尺度内便出现了显著的翅退化现象，且与高山林线紧密关联。大尺度生物地理分析证实，林线对这类生态型分布的影响远强于海拔本身。分子分析显示，在不同溪流种群中，残翅型（高海拔）与全翅型（低海拔）生态型间存在平行的基因组分化。据此，本研究数据揭示……