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 re-appearance of winged morphs.The thematic elements present in my body of work have developed throughout my process, and have resulted in an exploration of both a loss of innocence and identity. 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. In 15 Myr, they evolved several morphological adaptations to enter the syconia that make them strongly divergent from their sister taxa. The ostiolar gall-inducers are the only monophyletic group. 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. Conclusions The three main clades could be considered as tribes and we list some morphological characters that define them. The ancestral states for galling habits and male morphology remain ambiguous and our reconstructions show that the two traits are evolutionary labile. ![]() The Sycophaginae are divided into three clades: (i) Eukoebelea (ii) Pseudidarnes, Anidarnes and Conidarnes and (iii) Apocryptophagus, Sycophaga and Idarnes. With the exception of Apocrytophagus, which is paraphyletic with respect to Sycophaga, all genera are monophyletic. Results The resulting trees are well resolved and strongly supported. 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. We sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear markers (4.2 kb) on 73 species and 145 individuals and conducted maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses. Here we present an expanded phylogeny for sycophagine fig wasps including about 1.5 times the number of described species. The systematics of the group remains unclear and only one phylogeny based on limited sampling has been published to date. 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 species show differences in galling habits and exhibit apterous, winged or dimorphic males. Molecular dating allowed an outline of the main steps of the evolutionary history of Meloidae, which evolved during Early Cretaceous and then radiated considerably with the adoption of hypermetaboly and parasitic behaviour, and with repeated, parallel evolution of larval phoresy on its hosts.īackground Non-pollinating Sycophaginae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) form small communities within Urostigma and Sycomorus fig trees. Phylogenetic hypotheses based on separate and combined analysis of the 16S and ITS2 rDNA sequences, and morpho-biological characters were tested, and compared with previous morphological classifications. ITS2 structure represents a synapomorphic condition for the family and informative characters at the tribal level. Secondary structure of 16S and ITS2 rRNAs were modelled. ![]() In this work relationships among several taxa of the four subfamilies and almost all tribes representing meloid diversity are examined by using mitochondrial (16S) and nuclear (ITS2) DNA sequences, in 25 genera (using Anthicidae as outgroup). Previous phylogenetic hypotheses based on morphological characters assumed the repeated parallel evolution of complex biological novelties. ![]() Meloid beetles are well characterised by both morphological and biological features.
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