Evolutionary history of the parasitoidism of Cuckoo Wasps (Chrysididae: Amiseginae) on Walking Stick eggs (Phasmatodea): a multidisciplinary approach integrating morphology, fossils and DNA

• Grant number: 22/00251-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2022
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Barbosa Noll
• Grantee: Daercio Adam de Araújo Lucena
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/09215-6 - Countering the taxonomic impediment of aculeate wasps: micro- and macroregional visions of the neotropical fauna, AP.BTA.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/19160-2 - Integrating phylogenomics, fossils, and biogeography to interpret the evolution of the Amiseginae cuckoo wasps in time and space (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae), BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Parasitoid insects are specialized organisms that live inside or upon unique host, which is led to death due to the consequences of parasitoid actions. Despite it would be relatively easy to understand an evolutionary advantage for the parasitoid, it is harder to hypothesize the early and intermediary steps for the evolution of parasitoidism. One way to address this challenge is to seek for a model taxon whose multidisciplinary historical analysis could reproduce the evolution of this complex lifestyle. Amiseginae wasps accumulate several characteristics that make them suitable models for constructing hypotheses on the evolution of parasitoidism, in this case living inside of walking stick eggs (Phasmatodea). These wasps comprise one of the four currently recognized subfamilies in Chrysididae and constitute one of the most enigmatic groups of Aculeata parasitoid wasps, having at the moment being subject of comparatively few studies focused on their phylogenetic relationships. This project aims to integrate data from systematics, genetics, comparative morphology, ecology, biogeography and paleoentomology to infer the evolutionary history of Amiseginae, reconstructing the early steps which led to the specialized biology of these wasps. The phylogenetic relationships and divergence-time estimations among lineages will be simultaneously estimated, grounded on an integrative study that will employ morphological data coded for extant and extinct species, integrated with molecular data for living taxa at genomic scale. The historical biogeography of Amiseginae will be investigated having a dated phylogenetic tree as basis. This will be the first attempt to include present and past geographic ranges for incorporating fossils as terminals in the same framework, conciliating differentiation events of the main lineages of Amiseginae with geological processes involved in the transformations of terrestrial surface. Ancestral parasitoid-host interactions will be investigated grounded on a cophylogenetic model that incorporate host repertories, temporal and spatial congruences along the evolution of organisms involved in the system. This proposal will integrate part of the researches being developed in the Thematic Project "Countering the taxonomic impediment of aculeate wasps: micro and macroregional visions of the neotropical fauna". The results of this project will contribute for promoting a solid basis to overcome most of the taxonomic impediment for one of the groups categorized as key in the understanding of the evolution of aculeate hymenopterans. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LUCENA, DAERCIO A. A.; GOMES, RAYANE SALES; ZANELLA, FERNANDO C. V.; ALMEIDA, EDUARDO A. B.. "As Chrysididas do Brazil": A catalogue of the Brazilian cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, v. 68, n. 4, p. 63-pg., 2024-01-01. (18/09666-5, 22/00251-2, 13/01195-0, 15/12326-3, 14/12407-0, 19/09215-6, 17/25081-4)

LOPES, ROGERIO BOTION; MOLEIRO, HENRIQUE PEREIRA; LUCENA, DAERCIO A. A.. A new species of Huarpea Pate, 1947 (Hymenoptera, Sapygidae) from the semiarid region of Brazil. Zootaxa, v. 5507, n. 3, p. 17-pg., 2024-09-13. (22/00251-2, 20/07895-7, 19/09215-6, 21/00766-0)