Diversity and relationships of Ampedini Gistel, 1848 (Coleoptera : Elateridae) in Switzerland and Europe

The click-beetle family Elateridae is an abundant and ecologically important component of the saproxylic fauna, and many species are used as key indicators of old-growth forests, a rare and endangered habitat in Europe. Among Elateridae, the tribe Ampedini includes several species with unclear taxonomic status. Here we examined the species status and the relationships between 26 of the 29 Ampedini species recorded in Switzerland using both mitochondrial (CO1) and nuclear (ITS2) markers, and compared our results with the CO1 data publicly available for Europe. Our tree-based species-delimitation analysis was largely congruent with traditional, morphology-based species, with the ITS2 and the combined (CO1+ITS2) datasets corresponding more precisely to morphology than the CO1 dataset. As expected, species with unclear or debated taxonomic status generally corresponded to closely related DNA-based species pairs. Our results support the taxonomic status of some of these ambiguous species, while others require further investigations, including a more exhaustive sampling and new morphological examinations. The Ampedini species tree provided here, which is the first attempt of a DNA-based Ampedini phylogeny, did not support the genera Brachygonus and Ampedus as monophyletic, but further investigations are necessary to confirm this result.