Entomology Commons^™

Evolution And Biogeography Of High Appalachian Rove Beetles (Staphylinidae), Adam Haberski

All Dissertations

The southern Appalachian Mountains are a region of great species richness and a center of endemism in many taxa, including flightless arthropods. High elevation refugia have facilitated the persistence of ancient lineages (paleoendemism) and in situ speciation (neoendemism), but their ubiquity, timing, and relative importance is unknown. Congruent patterns among co-distributed, but independent taxa might illuminate common drivers of Appalachian endemism. In this dissertation, I investigated the influence of allopatric speciation, geography, and paleoclimate events on the diversification of endemic species in two genera of rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), Lathrobium Gravenhorst and Ischnosoma Stephens, using an integrative morphological and molecular …