Volume 24, Issue 1 pp. 89-99

Biogeographic area relationships in southern New Zealand: a cladistic analysis of Lepidoptera distributions

Brent C. Emerson

Corresponding Author

Brent C. Emerson

Department of Zoology

†Corresponding author. Present address: School of Biological Sciences. University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, England.Search for more papers by this author
Graham P. Wallis

Graham P. Wallis

Department of Zoology

Centre for Gene Research, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

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Brian H. Patrick

Brian H. Patrick

Department of Conservation, PO Box 5244, Dunedin, New Zealand

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First published: 13 July 2007
Citations: 7

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Recently, attention has been directed toward the application of cladistic techniques to reconstruct the history of areas from species distribution data. In this study, hypotheses of area relationships for southern New Zealand are generated from lepidopteran distribution data analysed at two taxonomic levels. Data are shown to possess cladistic structure and area relationships presented here are consistent with the geological history of the southern region of New Zealand. Our results suggest a recolonization of inland lowland regions from the south following a period of extinction during the early Pliocene. Analysis of selected data including only flightless or locally endemic species resulted in little resolution of area relationships but topologies were significantly congruent with a total species dataset. Hypotheses generated from this study are open to testing with congruence analysis using independent species phylogenies.

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