Beetles have colonized water many times during their history, with some of these events involving extensive evolutionary radiations and multiple transitions between land and water. With over 13,000 described species, they are one of the most diverse macroinvertebrate groups in most nonmarine aquatic habitats and occur on all continents except Antarctica. A combination of wide geographical and ecological range and relatively accessible taxonomy makes these insects an excellent model system for addressing a variety of questions in ecology and evolution. Work on water beetles has recently made important contributions to fields as diverse as DNA taxonomy, macroecology, historical biogeography, sexual selection, and conservation biology, as well as predicting organismal responses to global change. Aquatic beetles have some of the best resolved phylogenies of any comparably diverse insect group, and this, coupled with recent advances in taxonomic and ecological knowledge, is likely to drive an expansion of studies in the future.
1.Univ Plymouth, Sch Biol & Marine Sci, Marine Biol & Ecol Res Ctr, Plymouth PL4 8AA, Devon, England 2.Pompeu Fabra Univ, CSIC, Inst Evolutionary Biol, Barcelona 08003, Spain 3.Univ Kansas, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Lawrence, KS 66045 USA 4.Univ Kansas, Div Entomol, Biodivers Inst, Lawrence, KS 66045 USA
Recommended Citation:
Bilton, David T.,Ribera, Ignacio,Short, Andrew Edward Z.. Water Beetles as Models in Ecology and Evolution[J]. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ENTOMOLOGY, VOL 64,2019-01-01,64:359-+