First Record of Endosymbiotic Wolbachia in the Remarkably Diverse Tribe Dorcadionini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Abstract. Species diversity is remarkable especially in Dorcadion genus, which spreads in Europe and the Caucasus. Most members of the genus are incapable of flight, generally isolated, and some are endemic. Therefore, there are many studies on the distribution and diversity of species of Dorcadion. However, there is no study on endosymbiotic bacteria that play a critical role in the ecology, physiology and evolution of arthropods. In this study, endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria were investigated in members of D. crux Bilberg, 1817, D. micans micans Thomson, 1867, D. anatolicum Pic, 1900, D. septemlineatum Waltl, 1838 and D. scabricolle Dalman, 1817, collected from six different localities. Studies were performed with the Wspec-F/R primer pair. Two of the five examined species of Dorcadion (D. septemlineatum and D. micans micans) are not infected by Wolbachia. On the other hand, Wolbachia (supergroup B type) with the same consensus sequence was detected in D. anatolicum, D. scabricolle and D. crux. Interestingly, Wolbachia, which was thought to be accidental, was found to be common in males, but unfortunately this could not be explained by the data set obtained. However, considering the variations in Dorcadion species and the evaluations according to them, it can be claimed that there is no ordinary association between this taxon and Wolbachia. We hypothesize that among the possible explanations for the large morphological variability in Dorcadionini is the influence of the maternally inherited endosymbiotic Wolbachia. Therefore, we believe that the data obtained in this manuscript will contribute to studies on Dorcadion diversity and distribution.