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This content will become publicly available on February 14, 2026

Title: Systematics and biogeography of the Holarctic dragonfly genus Somatochlora (Anisoptera: Corduliidae)
Abstract The striped emeralds (SomatochloraSelys) are a Holarctic group of medium‐sized metallic green dragonflies that mainly inhabit bogs and seepages, alpine streams, lakes, channels and lowland brooks. With 42 species they are the most diverse genus within Corduliidae (Odonata: Anisoptera). Systematic, taxonomic and biogeographic resolution withinSomatochloraremains unclear, with numerous hypotheses of relatedness based on wing veins, male claspers (epiproct and paraprocts) and nymphs. Furthermore,Somatochlora borisiwas recently described as a new genus (Corduliochlora) based on 17 morphological characters, but its position with respect toSomatochlorais unclear. We present a phylogenetic reconstruction ofSomatochlorausing Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) sequences of 40/42Somatochloraspecies (includingCorduliochlora borisi). Our data recover the monophyly ofSomatochlora, withC. borisirecovered as sister to the remainingSomatochlora. We also recover three highly supported clades and one of mixed support; this lack of resolution is most likely due to incomplete lineage sorting, third‐codon position saturation based on iterative analyses run on variations of our dataset and hybridization. Furthermore, we constructed a dataset for all species based on 20 morphological characters from the literature which were used to evaluate phylogenetic groups recovered with molecular data; the data support the validity ofCorduliochloraas a genus distinct fromSomatochlora. Finally, divergence time estimation and biogeographic analysis indicateSomatochloraoriginated in the Western North Hemisphere during the Miocene, with three dispersal events to the Eastern North Hemisphere (11, 7 and 5 Ma, respectively) across the Beringian Land Bridge.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2002489 2002457
PAR ID:
10592108
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Systematic Entomology
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Systematic Entomology
ISSN:
0307-6970
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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