Phylogeny and evolution of life-history strategies in the Sycophaginae non-pollinating fig wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea)

Author(s):Show less -

Cruaud, Astrid ^[1] ; Jabbour-Zahab, Roula ^[1] ; Genson, Gwenaelle ^[1] ; Kjellberg, Finn ^[2] ; Kobmoo, Noppol ^[2] ; van Noort, Simon ^[3] ; Da-Rong, Yang ^[4] ; Yan-Qiong, Peng ^[4] ; Ubaidillah, Rosichon ^[5] ; Hanson, Paul E. ^[6] ; Santos-Mattos, Otilene ^[7] ; Farache, Fernando H. A. ^[8] ; Pereira, Rodrigo A. S. ^[8] ; Kerdelhue, Carole ^[1] ; Rasplus, Jean-Yves ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] INRA IRD CIRAD Montpellier SupAgro, INRA UMR Ctr Biol & Gest Populat, CBGP, F-34988 Montferrier Sur Lez - France

^[2] CNRS UMR Ctr Ecol Fonct & Evolut, CEFE, F-34293 Montpellier 5 - France

^[3] S African Museum, Nat Hist Div, Iziko Museums Cape Town, ZA-8000 Cape Town - South Africa

^[4] Peng Yan-Qiong, Chinese Acad Sci, Yang Da-Rong, Xishuangbanna Trop Bot Garden, Key Lab Trop Forest Ecol, Kunming 650223, Yunnan - Peoples R China

^[5] Biol Res Ctr, Museum Zool Bogoriense, Entomol Lab, Div Zool, LIPI, Bogor 16911 - Indonesia

^[6] Univ Costa Rica, Escuela Biol, San Jose - Costa Rica

^[7] Inst Nacl de Pesquisas da Amazonia, BR-69060001 Manaus, Amazonas - Brazil

^[8] Depto Biol FFCLRP USP, BR-14040901 Ribeirao Preto, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: BMC Evolutionary Biology; v. 11, JUN 22 2011.
• Web of Science Citations: 41

Abstract

Background: Non-pollinating Sycophaginae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) form small communities within Urostigma and Sycomorus fig trees. The species show differences in galling habits and exhibit apterous, winged or dimorphic males. The large gall inducers oviposit early in syconium development and lay few eggs; the small gall inducers lay more eggs soon after pollination; the ostiolar gall-inducers enter the syconium to oviposit and the cleptoparasites oviposit in galls induced by other fig wasps. The systematics of the group remains unclear and only one phylogeny based on limited sampling has been published to date. Here we present an expanded phylogeny for sycophagine fig wasps including about 1.5 times the number of described species. We sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear markers (4.2 kb) on 73 species and 145 individuals and conducted maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. We then used this phylogeny to reconstruct the evolution of Sycophaginae life-history strategies and test if the presence of winged males and small brood size may be correlated. Results: The resulting trees are well resolved and strongly supported. With the exception of Apocrytophagus, which is paraphyletic with respect to Sycophaga, all genera are monophyletic. The Sycophaginae are divided into three clades: (i) Eukoebelea; (ii) Pseudidarnes, Anidarnes and Conidarnes and (iii) Apocryptophagus, Sycophaga and Idarnes. The ancestral states for galling habits and male morphology remain ambiguous and our reconstructions show that the two traits are evolutionary labile. Conclusions: The three main clades could be considered as tribes and we list some morphological characters that define them. The same biologies re-evolved several times independently, which make Sycophaginae an interesting model to test predictions on what factors will canalize the evolution of a particular biology. The ostiolar gallinducers are the only monophyletic group. In 15 Myr, they evolved several morphological adaptations to enter the syconia that make them strongly divergent from their sister taxa. Sycophaginae appears to be another example where sexual selection on male mating opportunities favored winged males in species with small broods and wingless males in species with large broods. However, some species are exceptional in that they lay few eggs but exhibit apterous males, which we hypothesize could be due to other selective pressures selecting against the reappearance of winged morphs. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 04/10299-4 - Effects of the forest fragmentation in the State of São Paulo and other regions of the South and Southeast of the country in the functioning of populations of fig trees and in the fig-wasp mutualism of figs
• Grantee: Rodrigo Augusto Santinelo Pereira
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Young Investigators Grants
• FAPESP's process: 07/06054-4 - Diversity of wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) associated with the genus Ficus (Moraceae) in São Paulo State
• Grantee: Fernando Henrique Antoniolli Farache
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master