Reticulate Evolution and Speciation Dynamics in Beetles (Coleoptera)

Beetles (Coleoptera) represent one of the most diverse radiations on Earth, occupying an extraordinary diversity of ecological niches. Understanding the processes that generate and maintain this diversity is fundamental to evolutionary biology. While classical models of beetle diversification emphasize divergent, bifurcating speciation, growing genomic evidence indicates that reticulate evolution - through hybridization, introgression, and other mechanisms of interspecific gene exchange - may be more widespread than previously recognized and play a significant role in shaping species boundaries. In many beetle groups, contact zones arise in varied ecological settings, including mountain systems, islands, forest edges, and anthropogenic landscapes. These zones provide opportunities for hybridization, allowing alleles to move across species boundaries and influencing adaptation, ecological niche expansion, or the breakdown or reinforcement of reproductive barriers. Reticulate processes may even facilitate rapid diversification in some lineages, while in others they complicate phylogenetic inference, leading to mosaic genomes or conflicting gene trees.

The goal of this Research Topic is to gather new evidence on how hybridization, introgression, and other forms of reticulate evolution influence speciation dynamics in beetles. Despite growing evidence of gene flow between diverging lineages, its evolutionary significance remains unevenly explored across beetle clades. Reticulate evolution may promote adaptation by transferring advantageous alleles, obscure species boundaries, or generate conflicting phylogenetic signals that complicate reconstruction of evolutionary histories. At the same time, the ecological and genomic contexts that facilitate or restrict hybridization remain poorly understood in many taxa. This issue aims to address the opportunities and challenges associated with reticulate evolution in Coleoptera, integrating insights from phylogenomics, population genetics, ecology, behavior, taxonomy, and biogeography. Ultimately, the collection will highlight emerging themes, methodological challenges, and new model systems for studying evolutionary reticulation in the most diverse animal lineage.

We welcome contributions that explore empirical, theoretical, or methodological aspects of reticulate evolution and speciation in Coleoptera. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:

• molecular (including genetic and genomic) and morphological signatures of hybridization and introgression,
• characterization of hybrid zones across ecological gradients,
• impacts of gene flow on adaptation, reproductive isolation, and species limits,
• consequences of reticulate evolution for phylogenetic inference and taxonomy,
• biogeographic or ecological drivers influencing opportunities for hybridization.

We encourage submissions including original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, methods papers, and perspective pieces. Studies employing phylogenomics, population genetic analyses, comparative approaches, ecological experiments, or integrative taxonomic methods are particularly welcome.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Evolutionary genomics, Gene flow, Hybrid zones, Hybridization, Integrative taxonomy, Introgression, Phylogenetics, Reproductive isolation, Species boundaries

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.