Sexual Dimorphism & Diversification: Morphological Phylogeny of the Puppet Beetles (Coleoptera, Aderidae)

The puppet beetles (Coleoptera, Aderidae) represent one of the taxonomically and systematically poorest known beetle families. These beetles exhibit secondary sexual dimorphism in the form of elaborate male antennae or the presence of large setal patches on the hind legs. A combined molecular and morphological phylogeny for a worldwide sampling of the Aderidae is presented. Sexually dimorphic morphological characters are mapped onto this phylogeny and ancestral state character reconstructions are performed to examine their evolutionary history. The effects of sexual dimorphism on diversification rates are evaluated.