Author
Alexander N Schmidt-Lebuhn
alexander.s-l@csiro.au
CSIRO
Canberra
Coauthors
Daniella Egli, ARC PHP. South Africa
Alicia Grealy, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia
Ben Gooden, CSIRO, Canberra, Australia
Abstract
The southern African Senecio inaequidens – S. madagascariensis complex is globally invasive, but biological control research is impeded by taxonomic confusion. Of the species as currently accepted, S. madagascariensis is the most widespread, found in South America, Japan, Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, and most recently documented in New Zealand. The name S. inaequidens is used for invasive populations in Europe and Mexico, and S. skirrhodon is established in New Zealand. We have generated a target capture dataset of hundreds of gene loci to test which species have been introduced to which regions at the global scale, and to re-evaluate current taxonomy. Our results indicate that as currently circumscribed, S. madagascariensis comprises two lineages that are not directly related, one restricted to Madagascar, the other originating in continental southern Africa and comprising all invasive populations. Under the rules of taxonomic nomenclature, the invasive lineage would have to be renamed if the two are accepted as distinct species. The invasive lineage is itself divided into two sister lineages showing distinct geographic structure. We will discuss implications of these findings for biological control research and directions for future research.
keywords
Taxonomy
Phylogenetics
SNPs
Asteraceae
Senecio madagascariensis
Highlights
We present the first global-scale dataset of hundreds of loci for the Senecio inaequidens complex.
Senecio madagascariensis comprises two lineages that are not directly related.
Two sublineages of Senecio madagascariensis are invasive in different parts of the world.