Key questions on the evolution and biogeography of New Zealand alpine insects

ABSTRACT

New Zealand alpine environments host a diverse assemblage of insect lineages, with virtually every major insect group represented. The modern mountain ranges of New Zealand are relatively young and large areas of habitat above the tree line have only been in continual existence for the past one million years. We discuss the geological history and physical characteristics of New Zealand alpine environments and the resulting selective pressures placed on insect species. Some notable alpine taxa and previous faunistic research is highlighted. We discuss examples where single lineages have colonised the alpine zone and contrast these with larger radiations of alpine species which in some cases are the result of multiple colonisation events. The age of most alpine lineages is consistent with the young geological age of the mountains, nevertheless there are some much older alpine lineages of uncertain evolutionary history. We show that alpine species have employed a very broad range of morphological, physiological, and behavioural adaptations to survive in the alpine zone, and new studies are starting to unpick their genomic basis. Finally, we look to the future and assess threats to the unique New Zealand alpine insect fauna.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• speciation
• montane
• cold tolerance
• Coleoptera
• Lepidoptera

Acknowledgements

Comments on the manuscript were received from Peter Heenan and two anonymous reviewers. Anne Sutherland and Nicolette Faville generated the map in Figure 1, Svetlana Malysheva prepared Figure 2, Darren Ward provided NZAC locality data, John Marris, Luke Dunning and Chris Simon supplied photographs and Duane Peltzer gave references.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This publication was funded through Strategic Science Investment Funding from the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment and the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund [LCR1701].