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Espeland M, Chazot N, Condamine FL, Lemmon AR, Lemmon EM, Pringle E, Heath A, Collins S, Tiren W, Mutiso M, Lees DC, Fisher S, Murphy R, Woodhall S, Tropek R, Ahlborn SS, Cockburn K, Dobson J, Bouyer T, Kaliszewska ZA, Baker CCM, Talavera G, Vila R, Gardiner AJ, Williams M, Martins DJ, Sáfián S, Edge DA, Pierce NE. Rapid radiation of ant parasitic butterflies during the Miocene aridification of Africa. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10046. [PMID: 37193112 PMCID: PMC10182571 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Africa has undergone a progressive aridification during the last 20 My that presumably impacted organisms and fostered the evolution of life history adaptations. We test the hypothesis that shift to living in ant nests and feeding on ant brood by larvae of phyto-predaceous Lepidochrysops butterflies was an adaptive response to the aridification of Africa that facilitated the subsequent radiation of butterflies in this genus. Using anchored hybrid enrichment we constructed a time-calibrated phylogeny for Lepidochrysops and its closest, non-parasitic relatives in the Euchrysops section (Poloyommatini). We estimated ancestral areas across the phylogeny with process-based biogeographical models and diversification rates relying on time-variable and clade-heterogeneous birth-death models. The Euchrysops section originated with the emerging Miombo woodlands about 22 million years ago (Mya) and spread to drier biomes as they became available in the late Miocene. The diversification of the non-parasitic lineages decreased as aridification intensified around 10 Mya, culminating in diversity decline. In contrast, the diversification of the phyto-predaceous Lepidochrysops lineage proceeded rapidly from about 6.5 Mya when this unusual life history likely first evolved. The Miombo woodlands were the cradle for diversification of the Euchrysops section, and our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that aridification during the Miocene selected for a phyto-predaceous life history in species of Lepidochrysops, with ant nests likely providing caterpillars a safe refuge from fire and a source of food when vegetation was scarce.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marianne Espeland
- Centre for Taxonomy and MorphologyLeibniz Institute for the Analysis of Evolutionary Change – Museum KoenigBonnGermany
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative ZoologyHarvard UniversityCambridgeMassachusettsUSA
| | - Nicolas Chazot
- Department of EcologySwedish University of Agricultural SciencesUppsalaSweden
| | - Fabien L. Condamine
- CNRSUMR 5554 Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de MontpellierMontpellierFrance
| | - Alan R. Lemmon
- Department of Scientific ComputingFlorida State UniversityTallahasseeFloridaUSA
| | | | | | - Alan Heath
- Lepidopterists' Society of AfricaKnysnaSouth Africa
| | | | | | | | - David C. Lees
- Department of Life SciencesNatural History MuseumLondonUK
| | | | | | | | - Robert Tropek
- Department of Ecology, Faculty of ScienceCharles UniversityPragueCzechia
- Institute of Entomology, Biology CentreCzech Academy of SciencesCeske BudejoviceCzechia
| | - Svenja S. Ahlborn
- Centre for Taxonomy and MorphologyLeibniz Institute for the Analysis of Evolutionary Change – Museum KoenigBonnGermany
| | | | | | | | - Zofia A. Kaliszewska
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative ZoologyHarvard UniversityCambridgeMassachusettsUSA
| | - Christopher C. M. Baker
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative ZoologyHarvard UniversityCambridgeMassachusettsUSA
| | - Gerard Talavera
- Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB, CSIC‐Ajuntament de Barcelona)BarcelonaSpain
| | - Roger Vila
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC‐UPF)BarcelonaSpain
| | | | | | - Dino J. Martins
- Turkana Basin InstituteStony Brook UniversityStony BrookNew YorkUSA
| | - Szabolcs Sáfián
- Institute of Silviculture and Forest ProtectionUniversity of SopronSopronHungary
| | | | - Naomi E. Pierce
- Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative ZoologyHarvard UniversityCambridgeMassachusettsUSA
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Li X, Teasdale LC, Bayless KM, Ellis AG, Wiegmann BM, Lamas CJE, Lambkin CL, Evenhuis NL, Nicholls JA, Hartley D, Shin S, Trautwein M, Zwick A, Lessard BD, Yeates DK. Phylogenomics reveals accelerated late Cretaceous diversification of bee flies (Diptera: Bombyliidae). Cladistics 2021; 37:276-297. [PMID: 34478201 DOI: 10.1111/cla.12436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2019] [Revised: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Bombyliidae is a very species-rich and widespread family of parasitoid flies with more than 250 genera classified into 17 extant subfamilies. However, little is known about their evolutionary history or how their present-day diversity was shaped. Transcriptomes of 15 species and anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) sequence captures of 86 species, representing 94 bee fly species and 14 subfamilies, were used to reconstruct the phylogeny of Bombyliidae. We integrated data from transcriptomes across each of the main lineages in our AHE tree to build a data set with more genes (550 loci versus 216 loci) and higher support levels. Our overall results show strong congruence with the current classification of the family, with 11 out of 14 included subfamilies recovered as monophyletic. Heterotropinae and Mythicomyiinae are successive sister groups to the remainder of the family. We examined the evolution of key morphological characters through our phylogenetic hypotheses and show that neither the "sand chamber subfamilies" nor the "Tomophthalmae" are monophyletic in our phylogenomic analyses. Based on our results, we reinstate two tribes at the subfamily level (Phthiriinae stat. rev. and Ecliminae stat. rev.) and we include the genus Sericosoma Macquart (previously incertae sedis) in the subfamily Oniromyiinae, bringing the total number of bee fly subfamilies to 19. Our dating analyses indicate a Jurassic origin of the family (165-194 Ma), with the sand chamber evolving early in bee fly evolution, in the late Jurassic or mid-Cretaceous (100-165 Ma). We hypothesize that the angiosperm radiation and the hothouse climate established during the late Cretaceous accelerated the diversification of bee flies, by providing an expanded range of resources for the parasitoid larvae and nectarivorous adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuankun Li
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.,Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Luisa C Teasdale
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Keith M Bayless
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Allan G Ellis
- Botany and Zoology Department, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa
| | - Brian M Wiegmann
- Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA
| | - Carlos José E Lamas
- Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo. Avenida Nazaré, 481 Ipiranga 04263-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil
| | | | - Neal L Evenhuis
- J. Linsley Gressitt Center for Research in Entomology, Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI, 96817, USA
| | - James A Nicholls
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Diana Hartley
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Seunggwan Shin
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA.,School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea
| | - Michelle Trautwein
- Entomology Department, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, 94118, USA
| | - Andreas Zwick
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - Bryan D Lessard
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
| | - David K Yeates
- Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia
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Ellis AG, Anderson B, Kemp JE. Geographic Mosaics of Fly Pollinators With Divergent Color Preferences Drive Landscape-Scale Structuring of Flower Color in Daisy Communities. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 12:617761. [PMID: 33597961 PMCID: PMC7882612 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.617761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 01/04/2021] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
The striking variation in flower color across and within Angiosperm species is often attributed to divergent selection resulting from geographic mosaics of pollinators with different color preferences. Despite the importance of pollinator mosaics in driving floral divergence, the distributions of pollinators and their color preferences are seldom quantified. The extensive mass-flowering displays of annual daisy species in Namaqualand, South Africa, are characterized by striking color convergence within communities, but also color turnover within species and genera across large geographic scales. We aimed to determine whether shifts between orange and white-flowered daisy communities are driven by the innate color preferences of different pollinators or by soil color, which can potentially affect the detectability of different colored flowers. Different bee-fly pollinators dominated in both community types so that largely non-overlapping pollinator distributions were strongly associated with different flower colors. Visual modeling demonstrated that orange and white-flowered species are distinguishable in fly vision, and choice experiments demonstrated strongly divergent color preferences. We found that the dominant pollinator in orange communities has a strong spontaneous preference for orange flowers, which was not altered by conditioning. Similarly, the dominant pollinator in white communities exhibited an innate preference for white flowers. Although detectability of white flowers varied across soil types, background contrast did not alter color preferences. These findings demonstrate that landscape-level flower color turnover across Namaqua daisy communities is likely shaped by a strong qualitative geographic mosaic of bee-fly pollinators with divergent color preferences. This is an unexpected result given the classically generalist pollination phenotype of daisies. However, because of the dominance of single fly pollinator species within communities, and the virtual absence of bees as pollinators, we suggest that Namaqua daisies function as pollination specialists despite their generalist phenotypes, thus facilitating differentiation of flower color by pollinator shifts across the fly pollinator mosaic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allan G. Ellis
- Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa
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