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Emily Moran
Research Training Program, 2004
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Abstract Erato is a genus of five species distributed from Costa Rica to Bolivia with its main center of diversity in Ecuador. Morphological characters were used to determine the relationships among these species. A new species endemic to Costa Rica was identified and described. A revision of the genus and all species was completed. A cladistic analysis using morphological and molecular data supported Erato as a monophyletic group sister to Philoglossa. Within Erato, relationships were weakly supported, suggesting a recent radiation.
The genus Erato,
which has not been previously revised, belongs to the tribe Liabeae,
The study was based on specimens in the US National Herbarium. Of the characters obtained, 25 were used in the cladistic analysis, along with 2 genetic characters from a previous study (1). Munnozia, Philoglossa, and Chrysactinium, the other genera in the subtribe Munnoziinae, served as outgroups. Maximum parsimony analysis and parsimony bootstrap analysis (with 1000 replicate runs) were performed using full heuristic searches with PAUP (2). No weighting was used. Maximum parsimony analysis using a branch-and-bound search was also performed. The bootstrap runs employed 1000 replicates with branch-and-bound searches.
The revision resulted in the description of a new species and a monograph of the genus. Erato was strongly supported as monophyletic, and as sister to Philoglossa. Differences between species of Erato are subtle, and because of the similarity between species the genus is believed to have undergone a recent radiation. This is consistent with the geological history of the region.; the isthmus of Panama was exposed as little as 12,000 years ago(3,4), and it was perhaps at this time that Erato colonized Costa Rica and began to evolve into new taxa.
1. KIM, H., V. A. FUNK, A. VLASEK, and E.A. ZIMMER 2003. A Phylogeny of the Munnoziinae (Compositae, Liabeae): Circumscription of Munnozia and a new placement of M. perfoliata. Plant Systematics and Evolution 239 (3/4): 171-186. 2. SWOFFORD, D. L. 2002. PAUP*. Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (* and other methods). Version 4.0b10. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA. 3. GENTRY, A.H. 1982. Neotropical floristic diversity: phytogeographical connections between Central and South America, Pleistocene climatic fluctuations, or an accident of the Andean orogeny? Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 69: 557-593. 4. VUILLEUMIER, B.S. 1975. Pleistocene changes in the flora of the high tropical Andes. Paleobiology 1: 273-294. Want to ask a question? Visit the Message Board Virtual
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a
Neotropical tribe of Composites containing approximately 180 species
in 15 genera. Erato has five species, one of which is newly described,
with the greatest diversity in Ecuador. They are characterized by bright
green, opposite, ovate leaves with serrate and dentate margins, palmate
veins, and reddish petioles; milky sap; nearly total absence of arachnoid
tomentum; thick-based hairs; yellow flowers; and four-sided achenes.
Cladistic analysis using 27 characters yielded 3 equally parsimonious
trees. Bootstrap support was high for the monophyly of Erato (92%) and
for the Erato/Philoglossa clade (93%). Relationships within
Erato, however, had much weaker bootstrap support, 62% for the
clade including all but E. polymnioides, and 60% for the E. sodiroi/E.
vulcanica clade.
