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Aim: Similar environmental selection pressures drive the occurrence of convergent evolution among species. However, studies on this phenomenon are scarce at the population level. Here, we used two waist‐shaped bugs to test the hypothesis that similar high‐elevation habitat environments could lead to similar genetic adaptations among populations of different species. Location: East Asia. Taxa: Malcus sinicus Štys, 1967 & Malcus insularis Štys, 1967. Methods: Population genetic structure was determined by phylogenetic and phylogeographical analyses. Demographic history was inferred by comparing simulated history models. Suitable habitat from the last interglacial period (LIG) to the present was predicted by ecological niche modelling (ENM). Convergent evolutionary processes were jointly assessed by the comparison of population ecological differences and the principal component analysis of environmentally related single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Results: Our results showed that the land bridge in the Pleistocene helped ancestral populations of M. sinicus and M. insularis diffuse from mainland China to Taiwan Island. Subsequently, the geographical barrier imposed by the Taiwan Strait promoted the species differentiation. Geographic isolation and adaptive evolution jointly promoted the population differentiation in M. sinicus. Genetic similarity was found between the populations of M. sinicus in southwestern China (sin‐YN) and M. insularis on Taiwan Island (ins‐TW). Temperature‐related environmental factors and elevation were found to similarly and significantly clustered with ins‐TW and sin‐YN and were clearly distinguished from the other low−/mid‐elevation populations of M. sinicus (sin‐EA). Furthermore, the SNPs related to these environmental factors presented the same clustering results. Main Conclusions: Our study revealed a novel disjunct distribution pattern between southwestern China and Taiwan Island at the population level and provided evidence of convergent evolution of local populations in high‐elevation environments. Here, we revealed that similar environmental selection pressures can drive the occurrence of convergent evolution at the population level among different species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Vicariance and ecological adaptation are two evolutionary mechanisms that can generate biodiversity. Evidence from recent studies has shown that the patterns of genetic variation of species distributed in South China are influenced by the Taiwan Strait and/or the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau (QTP). 2. This study sequenced three mitochondrial and one nuclear genes from 174 individuals Carbula crassiventris and conducted phylogenetic and phylogeographical analyses, asymmetric gene flow estimation, intraspecific divergence time and historical demographic reconstruction, morphological comparison, ecological niche modelling (ENM), and isolation‐by‐distance (IBD) and isolation‐by‐environment (IBE) modelling to test if vicariance and ecological adaptation jointly affected biogeographic patterns in South China. 3. According to the results of phylogenetic and phylogeographical analyses, C. crassiventris was divided into three populations (Mainland, Xizang, and Taiwan). Asymmetric gene flows were detected from the Mainland to Xizang populations and from the Mainland to Taiwan populations. Morphological comparison showed that the individuals from the three defined populations have significant differences in four variables. The ENM results suggested that suitable habitat has expanded from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present. Partial Mantel tests indicated that individuals in the Mainland population were not dispersal‐limited, regardless of geographic or environmental distance, but that a significant IBE relationship was present in the Mainland–Xizang lineage. When including the Taiwan population in the dataset, significant IBD and IBE relationships were detected. 4. This study revealed that both vicariance, with the Taiwan Strait as a geographical barrier, and ecological adaptation, in both the QTP and Taiwan, jointly influence population divergence of C. crassiventris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three species of the genus Pseudovelia Hoberlandt, 1950 from China are described as new: Pseudovelia recava sp. nov. from Guizhou, P. sichuanensis sp. nov. from Sichuan and P. spiculata sp. nov. from Taiwan. Photographs of the male dorsal habitus, male forelegs, male middle legs, male hind legs, details of the fore tibia and hind tarsus, and genitalic structures are provided, accompanied by line drawings of male genitalic structures, habitat photos and a geographic distribution map.