Enigmatic Campyloxenus: Shedding light on the delayed origin of bioluminescence in ancient Gondwanan click beetles

Michal Motyka; Dominik Kusy; Elizabeth T Arias-Bohart; Seth M Bybee; Ladislav Bocak

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108440

Enigmatic Campyloxenus: Shedding light on the delayed origin of bioluminescence in ancient Gondwanan click beetles

iScience. 2023 Nov 14;26(12):108440. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108440. eCollection 2023 Dec 15.

Authors

Michal Motyka¹, Dominik Kusy¹, Elizabeth T Arias-Bohart², Seth M Bybee³, Ladislav Bocak¹

Affiliations

¹ Biodiversity and Molecular Evolution, Czech Advanced Technology Research Institute, Slechtitelu 27, 779 00 Olomouc, Czech Republic.
² Essig Museum of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, 1101 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley California 94720, USA.
³ Brigham Young University, College of Life Sciences, Department of Biology, 4102 Life Sciences Building, Provo, UT 84602, USA.

Abstract

Gondwanan elaterids, previously thought to be unrelated, include bioluminescent Campyloxenus earlier placed in bioluminescent Pyrophorinae. Genomic data suggest close relationships between Gondwanan groups. We maintain Morostomatinae and Hapatesinae and redefine Pityobiinae with Nearctic Pityobiini, Gondwanan Parablacini stat. nov., Campyloxenini stat. nov., and Tibionemini trib. nov. Their ancestors putatively underwent differentiation in Gondwana during the Cretaceous separation of southern continents. In contrast with their age, extant groups are species poor. Campyloxenus represents a recent origin of bioluminescence, no older than ∼53 my. Its large pronotal lanterns differ from Pyrophorini and resemble color patches of sympatric beetle co-mimics. This discovery highlights the fourth or fifth origin of bioluminescence in Elateroidea, alongside the lampyroid clade, click beetles Pyrophorini, Alampoides and Coctilelater in Anaissini (Pyrophorinae), and Balgus schnusei (Thylacosterninae). While our phylogenetic findings illuminate the phylogenetic aspects, the complete story awaits further field observations and in-depth genomic analyses of biochemical pathways used by bioluminescent elateroids.

Keywords: Entomology; evolutionary biology; phylogenetics.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.24316531