The concept of the niche is frequently defined as an n-dimensional hypervolume of biotic and abiotic conditions under which a species can survive and reproduce. In addition to this abstract concept, the niche also represents a phenotypic trait of a population and is subject to natural selection, and thus able to evolve. In this study we use features of the ecological niche in the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships of pseudopsine staphylinid beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pseudopsinae). The Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP) was used to estimate the ecological niche of examined species with each component then used in the phylogenetic analysis. Our resulting hypothesis is compared to a previous phylogenetic hypothesis derived by Herman (1975, 1977) for the pseudopsine beetles.
Species 1: Coleoptera Staphylinidae
Keywords: systematics, niche
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