When morphometry meets genetics: inferring the phylogeography of Carabus solieri using Fourier analyses of pronotum and male genitalia

Population differentiation is a crucial step in the speciation process and is therefore a central subject in studies of microevolution. Assessing divergence and inferring its dynamics in space and time generally require a wide array of markers. Until now however, most studies of population structure are based on molecular markers and those concerning morphological traits are more scarce. In the present work, we studied morphological differentiation among populations of the ground beetle Carabus solieri, and tested its congruence with genetic population structure. The shape of pronotum and aedeagus was assessed using Dual Axis Fourier Shape Analysis. manova on Fourier coefficients revealed h…