Verification of Indian refugium hypothesis by analyzing phylogeography of ants, widely distributed in Asia

利用线粒体DNA和微卫星DNA分析，推测了麻叶甲和细脚裸鳞甲的系统地理学。O.斯马格迪纳证明了这一点。印度种群在遗传学上与分布到孟加拉国的东南部种群不同，这表明印度西南部曾经有一片避难所雨林，现在的种群从那里分散到印度北方和东部。另一方面，遗传关系相近的蚂蚁A.细足类没有明显的地理分布，反映了目前人类活动的干扰。对该入侵种的DNA分析和生态学研究表明，它们对不同岛屿生态系统的影响差异不是由于种群特异性遗传，而是由于岛屿特异性生态系统。

Phylogeography of Oecophylla smaragdina and Anoplolepis gracilipes was inferred from analyses of mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite DNA. O. smaragdina showed that. Indian populations were phylogenetically different from South-Eastern populations distributed up to Bangladesh, indicating that there had been a refuge rainforest in southwestern India from which the present populations had dispersed to northern and eastern India. On the other hand, the phylogenetically close ant A. gracilipes did not show clear phylogeography, indicating the current disturbance by human being. The DNA analyses and ecological studies of this invasive species suggest that the variation of their impact on different island ecosystems is not due to the population-specific genetics but to the island-specific ecosystems.