2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Comparative studies on the evolutionary patterns of microhabitats and morphology in Passalidae based on the phylogenetic analysis
| Project/Area Number |
11833014
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Institution | School of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture |
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Principal Investigator |
KON Masahiro School of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture, Associate Professor, 環境科学部, 助教授 (00211912)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
荒谷 邦雄 九州大学, 大学院・比較社会文化研究院, 助教授 (10263138)
KUNIO Araya Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, Associate Professor
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| Project Period (FY) |
1999 – 2001
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| Keywords | Passalidae / phylogeny / evolution / microhabitat / morphology |
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| Research Abstract |
Passalidae are the family of Coleoptera, belonging to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea, and most species occur in the humid tropics. The subsocial behavior of them has often been cited in the entomological literature. It has also been known that passalid beetles show some morphological adaptations in the adult body shape to their microhabitats. In order to know the relationship between adult body shape and microhabitats, we made measurements of the adult body shape and field observations on the microhabitats for about fifty species belonging to eight genera of the Passalidae. The proportions of (elytra length)/(body length) and (elytra width)/(body length) are remarkably uniform among all the apecies examined, whereas body thickness greatly varies both among genera and apecies. We found that flatter species are living under the bark of logs and the species with flattened and widened front tibiae living in the detritus-like microhabitats.
For the Oriental 3 passalid genera, Aceraius, Macrolinus and Ophrygonius, it was revealed that sapwood/heatwood inhabitants are more convex in body shape than underbark inhabitants in each examined genus. It was duduced from the present results that evolutionary change of body thickness had occurred at least once associatedwith that of microhabitat within each genus.
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