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The fauna of Diplura, the two-pronged bristletails (Hexapoda), of the southern Appalachians has received little focused systematic attention. Existing literature suggests the fauna to comprise around a dozen species. Based on a broader DNA barcode-based survey of high elevation litter arthropods in the region, we suggest the fauna to be much richer, with automated species delimitation methods hypothesising as many as 35 species, most highly restricted to single or closely proximate localities. Such a result should not be very surprising for such small, flightless arthropods, although it remains to be seen if other markers or morphology support such high diversity. The region still remains sparsely sampled for these more cryptic elements of the arthropod fauna and much larger numbers of species undoubtedly remain to be discovered.
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Diversity in the duff – what does DNA metabarcoding reveal about leaf-litter arthropods in the Smokies?
Abstract: The highest elevations of the southern Appalachians host a distinct type of forest, and with that comes a distinctive arthropod fauna. The arthropod species living in the leaf litter of the forest floor are particularly diverse, with numerous high elevation endemics. Yet, most of the litter fauna has received little taxonomic attention. We have intensively sampled and thoroughly DNA barcoded these arthropod communities, and have found that each peak tends to host a highly distinctive community, with a third or more of the species endemic to a site. Comparing communities from four peaks in the Smokies to other high elevation sites in the southern Appalachians reveals more than half of the litter arthropod species to be found nowhere else.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1916263
- PAR ID:
- 10467252
- Publisher / Repository:
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Discover Life in America
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whcffOw_PWU
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- [online]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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