Chromosome numbers and karyotypic evolution of Caraboidea

✍ Scribed by J. Serrano

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 723 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-6707
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00134005

✦ Synopsis

The chromosome numbers of 136 species of the Spanish caraboid fauna were studied. The most frequent karyotypes are 2n = 37 (54 species) and 2n = 24 (23 species), and the chromosome number ranges from 2n = 21 to 2n = 69, of which 2n = 69 is the highest diploid number hitherto found among the Coleoptera. It is proposed that 2n = 37 is the ancestral karyotype of the division Caraboidea and the suborder Adephaga as opposed to that of the suborder Polyphaga, 2n = 20, Karyotypic evolution has led to increases and decreases of this number, both tendencies having taken place in four genera. Species of ten genera show a neo-XY bivalent due to an X-autosome fusion. The thirty-three chromosome numbers of Caraboidea reveal that these Coleoptera have a remarkable karyotypical heterogeneity.