Evolution and diversification of the forest and hypogean ground-beetle genus Trechus in the Canary Islands

The beetle genus Trechus (Carabidae) is represented in the Macaronesian Islands by 43 endemic species. The Canary Islands have 16 endemic species, with two adapted to hypogean life. Phylogenetic relationships among 177 individuals of 38 Canarian, Madeiran, Azorean and continental Trechus species were examined using mitochondrial DNA and nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) sequence data. Results show two main lineages in the Canaries: one comprising two sister groups with species from the laurel forest of La Gomera and Tenerife, and the other containing the single species from Gran Canaria and a species complex in the four western islands including two troglobites. Calibrations were applied to a linearized tree using a relaxed molecular clock method to estimate the major evolutionary divergence times of the Canarian Trechus species. Although the species assemblage in this archipelago is relatively ancient (7–8 million years), much of the species diversity is recent. Transition to the hypogean environment is more consistent with the “adaptive shift” rather than with the competing “climatic relict” hypothesis.