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We thank the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board (permit No. CN44-30-4229), the Cape Research Centre (South African National Parks, CRC/2019-2020/012-2012/V1) and Grootbos Private Nature reserve for authorization to collect specimens in the Western Cape province of South Africa.; International audience; The Cape Floristic Region in the Republic of South Africa is a well-recognized hotspot of biodiversity. Although this region is mostly known for its high level of plant diversity and endemicity, it also hosts an understudied and likely diverse arthropod fauna. Here we investigate the evolutionary history and timing of diversification of the apterous weevil genus Phlyctinus (Curculionidae: Entiminae), which is endemic to the coastal area and adjacent mountain ranges of the Cape floristic region and generally associated with sunflower plants (Asteraceae). We use a diverse array of molecular analyses (phylogenetic inference, molecular species delimitation and dating analyses) to analyse a novel molecular dataset of 202 weevil specimens (including 170 Phlyctinus sampled in 60 sites), and sequenced for two mitochondrial and four nuclear gene fragments. Phylogenetic and dating analyses indicate that the genus started diversifying in the late Miocene, with contrasting diversification dynamics for the three inferred clades, which present disjunct distributions. Host plant records and the lack of relatedness of species living in sympatry indicate that the diversification of Phlyctinus was predominantly driven by allopatric (geographic) speciation. We hypothesize that the interplay between topography and recurring cycles of coastline-habitat fragmentation resulting from sea level oscillations spurred the diversification of the most speciose clade, whereas in the two remaining clades populations likely remained connected thus hampering allopatric speciation. Interestingly, this pattern echoes with the role of sea level oscillations as an important driver of the radiation of several lineages in the coastline ecosystems of the Cape Floristic Region.

Newly generated sequences were deposited in GenBank, and are registered with the following accession numbers: OQ581997–OQ582070(cob), OQ603605–OQ603608(18S), OQ606012–OQ606168(cox1), OQ624960–OQ625111(rrnL), OQ625113–OQ625252(rrnS) and OQ625254–OQ625279(28S) (see Table S2 for details).This study is dedicated to Dr. André Prost, who passed away on February 3, 2023. André Prost was a well-recognized Neuroptera specialist (former secretary of the International Association of Neuropterology), with a special interest for the West African fauna.Merwyn W.Mansell gratefully acknowledges the following organizations and people who contributed to research on antlion diversity in SouthernAfrica: Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation, the Tswalu Foundation, and Nicky, Jonathan and Strilli Oppenheimer ,who have actively encouraged and permitted Neuroptera research in their private reserves, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve and Rooipoort; Duncan MacFadyen (Oppenheimer Generations, Head Research and Con-servation), Dylan Smith (Tswalu Kalahari Reserve), who facilitated ourvisits and provided key specimens. Also, (i) the National Parks Boardof South Africa is acknowledged for permits enabling Neuroptera research in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (now Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park), the Kruger National Park and Karoo National Park,and the staff of these parks who enabled the visits and provided valuable material: (L.E.O. Braack, A. Braack, H. Braack; Dr S. Joubert), (C.E.O., Kruger Park); (ii) Northern Cape Nature Conservation is thanked for providing permits for the northern Cape region; (iii) the KwaZulu-Natal Parks are acknowledged for permission to work on their reserves. Dr M.K. Seely, Director of the Namib Desert Research Station at Gobabeb is thanked for providing facilities and much scientifico-operation over the years; (iv) the Directorate of Nature Conservation and Recreational Resorts of Namibia are acknowledged for use offacilities at Gobabeb and permission to work in the Namib/NaukluftPark, many years ago. Professor Clarke H. Scholtz (University of Pretoria) is especially thanked for organizing many of the field trips thatprocured important material. Merwyn W. Mansell also gratefullyacknowledges the following people especially, for providing crucial specimens: J.B. Ball (University of Pretoria), A.K. (Tony) Brinkman, A.J.Gardiner, H. de Klerk, P. Hawkes, D.M. Kroon, W. Jubber, A.P. Marais,R.W. Mansell, L.R. Minter, R.G. Oberprieler, H.S Staude, R.D. Stephenand those mentioned in Mansell and Oswald (2023). The JRS Biodiversity Foundation and GBIF are sincerely thanked for funding M.W.Mansell’s Southern African Lacewing project, especially the development of the “Palpares Relational Database” designed by Brian Kenyon,which underpinned the accumulation and collation of much data usedin this presentation, for which he is gratefully acknowledged. Whileworking at icipe (African Insect Science for Food and Health), B. Le Rubenefited from research and collect permits delivered by the KenyaPlant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) (B. Le Ru thanks A. Kibe,B. Musyoka, L. Ngala, G. Okuku and G. Ong’amo) and the Plant Pro-tection Division of the Ministry of Agriculture of Botswana (B. Le Ru EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS OF PALPARINE ANTLIONS thanks C. Nyakumondiwa, R. Mutamisha and E. Moeng). Bruno Michel also thanks the following people for providing several interesting specimens: B.F. Jacobs (Southern Methodist University, USA), M.Martinez (INRAE) and J.-Y. Rasplus (INRAE). We gratefully acknowledge the late A. Prost for communicating important information on the genusNosa. We are also indebted to the following persons whogave us permission to use pictures they took: S. Akame, T. Cardenos,H. de Klerk, G. Kunz, D. Robertson, H. Robertson, H. Roland, W.Roland and A.T. Schoeman. Laboratory facilities were provided by CBGP in France. We are grateful to the Genotoul bioinformatics platform Toulouse Occitanie (Bioinfo Genotoul, https://doi.org/10.15454/1.5572369328961167E12) for providing help and/or computing and/or storage resources.; International audience; Palparine and palparidiine antlions constitute an emblematic clade of large and occasionally colourful insects that are only distributed in the western portion of the Eastern hemisphere, with about half of the known species diversity occurring exclusively in Southern Africa. Little is known about their evolutionary history, and the boundaries and relationships of most genera are still unresolved. In this study, we analyse a molecular dataset consisting of seven loci (five mitochondrial and two nuclear genes) for 144 antlion species and provide the first phylogenetic hypothesis for a representative sampling of Palparini and Palparidiini (62 Palparini species, representing 15 of the 17 known genera, and all three known Palparidiini species). In addition, we reconstruct their timing of diversification and historical biogeography. The resulting tree indicates that several extant palparine genera are polyphyletic or paraphyletic and provides interesting leads that ought to be helpful for future taxonomic revisions; it also enables us to re-evaluate the taxonomic utility and relevancy of a number of morphological characters that were previously used to define some genera. Molecular dating analyses indicate that the most recent common ancestor of both groups originated about 92 million years ago (Ma) in the Late Cretaceous. Finally, the results of historical biogeography analyses provide strong support for an origin in Southern Africa, which further acted as both a cradle of diversification and a springboard for successive waves of northern dispersals.