Assassin Bugs Biodiversity, Diet and Phylogenetics Yeo Huiqing - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Assassin Bugs

Biodiversity, Diet and Phylogenetics

Yeo Huiqing Supervisors: Professor Rudolf Meier

• Dr. Hwang Wei Song

Department of Biological Sciences, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, University Scholars Programme, NUS

Piercing, sucking mouthpart

A group of nymphs feeding Sycanus sp. feeding on grasshopper

Diverse Morphology

Forelegs Head Other features

• 1. What is the species

diversity of assassin bugs in Singapore?

How do we identify them?

Background

• No checklist of assassin bugs in Singapore  no baseline

data

• Lack of species information in Singapore online.

Checklist: 96 species (13 subfamilies)

• 1. What is the species diversity of

assassin bugs in Singapore?

Materials and Methods

• Field: Nature reserves, buffer areas and parks
• Other sources: LKCNHM collection, catalogue, descriptions, keys

and incomplete checklist

• 1. How do we identify them?

72 Species pages uploaded to the Animals and Plants of Singapore website Materials and Methods

• Specimens and species records from the various sources mentioned
• High resolution imaging using the Visionary Digital system
• DNA barcoding via Next-Generation Sequencing

• 1. How do we identify them?

Illustrated identification key (currently to genera uploaded) Materials and Methods

• Specimens and species records from the various sources mentioned
• High resolution imaging using the Visionary Digital system
• DNA barcoding via Next-Generation Sequencing

• 1. How do we identify them?

COI species barcodes (313bp) sufficient to identify reduviid species Materials and Methods

• Specimens and species records from the various sources mentioned
• High resolution imaging using the Visionary Digital system
• DNA barcoding via Next-Generation Sequencing

• 2. What are they feeding on?

• 2. What are they feeding on?
• L. annularis
• L. erecta
• L. inornata
• L. pallidispina L. rhypara

Background

• Salyavatinae widely assumed to be termite specialists based on

literature on New World species

• Observations in the field were unsuccessful

Salyavatinae

• 2. What are they feeding on?

Materials and Methods

• 49 specimens
• Gut dissections  metabarcoding via Next-Generation Sequencing

(NGS) platform

• Matched against databases (NCBI Genbank, local termite database)

• 2. What are they feeding on?
• 4 species of termite assassin bugs feeds on at least 10 species (6

genera) of termites.

• Possible to retrieve multiple termite species from a tiny gut

sample through NGS  use method to expand and find out what

• ther assassin bugs are feeding on.

Macrotermes Image credits: Foo Maosheng Odontotermes Hypotermes

• 3. How are they related?

Species information Ecological information Evolutionary history

• 3. How are they related?

Background

• Phylogenetic relationships of termite assassin bugs

(Salyavatinae) are unknown

• Only a few species of Salyavatinae were represented in the most

recent phylogenetic analysis.

Lisarda pallidispina Valentia apetala Rhachicephala sp.

Salyavatinae representatives

T

• 3. How are they related?

Materials and Methods

• Salyavatinae and reduviinae species from Singapore and Thailand
• 5 genes (COI, 16S, 18S, 28SD2, 28SD3-5)
• Phylogenetic analyses using TNT (parsimony) and RAxML-HPC2

(maximum likelihood) Tracing the evolution of foreleg morphology Do the shape of the forelegs relate to prey capture?

Species information Ecological information Evolutionary history

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

NP/RP13-087-1 Evolutionary Biology Lab

Special thanks to: Amrita Darren Yeo Maosheng Ming Kai Sujatha Yuchen

• Dr. Cheong Loong Fah

Eric Gordan

Thank You