Phylogeography of the pinyon pine engraver beetle Ips confusus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae)

Ips Confusus are economically important forest insects. They are host specific, mainly feed on two pinon pine species (Pinus edulis and Pinus monophylla). Cognato et al (2003) collected Ips Confusus from Southwest and California, examined the genetic structure of the beetles populations and found that the population structure was associated with geographic isolation. To further understand the relationship between the geographic distributions of the host trees/ beetles and the genetic structure of beetles, and to provide better answers to the questions such as how strong the gene flow is among populations, what the possible postglacial dispersal routes were and etc, we conducted a similar study focusing on the samples from the areas in between California and Southwest states, using nested clade analyses of mtDNA COI sequence data from 300 in total individuals.