Mind the Gap: the evolution of oviposition site and specialisation in the parasitoid superfamily Chalcidoidea

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Persistent link to this item

https://doi.org/10.13020/D6HQ22
https://hdl.handle.net/11299/194301

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Keywords

Evolutionary dead-end

Host range

Niche breadth

Ecological specialisation

Parasitoid

Chalcidoidea

Pteromalidae

Conura

Biological control

Collection period

2016-09-01
2017-11-11

Date completed

2017-11-11

Date updated

Time period coverage

Geographic coverage

Source information

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Title

Mind the Gap: the evolution of oviposition site and specialisation in the parasitoid superfamily Chalcidoidea

Published Date

2018-03-05

Authors

Boulton, Rebecca A

Heimpel, George E

Group

Author Contact

Boulton, Rebecca A
rebeccaboulton87@googlemail.com

Type

Dataset
Observational Data
Other Dataset

Abstract

Parasitoid wasps have contributed significantly to our understanding of ecological specialisation and the evolution of traits linked to host range. Oviposition site is one such trait. Endoparasitoids deposit their eggs inside the host body and tend to be more highly specialised than ectoparasitoids (which lay eggs externally) because they must develop specific strategies to overcome host immune defences. Intermediate to endo- and ectoparasitism is a strategy that we call ‘gap laying’. Gap-laying parasitoids deposit their eggs between the hard outer puparium and the larva of dipteran hosts. This behaviour has received less empirical attention than endo- and ectoparasitism but has important implications for the evolution of specialisation. Using a phylogenetically controlled comparative approach we find that gap-laying species in the hymenopteran superfamily Chalcidoidea exhibit numeric host ranges intermediate to endo- and ectoparasitoids, but these groups exploit a similarly taxonomically related range of hosts. We found that gap-laying can arise from ectoparasitism or endoparasitism, but once it evolves it shows patterns consistent with an evolutionary dead-end compared to other strategies. The results of this study demonstrate how oviposition site, beyond the normal endo-ectoparasitoid dichotomy, influences host specificity, shedding light on the causes and consequences of ecological specialisation in the parasitic Hymenoptera.

Description

Trait files for all species and traits, newick file for composite phylogeny, spreadsheet containing frequencies of all transitions across all most parsimonious reconstructions.

Referenced by

Boulton, R.A. & Heimpel, G.E. (2018). Mind the gap: The evolution of oviposition site and specialization in the parasitoid superfamily Chalcidoidea. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 20, 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/bly031

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Data Repository for U of M (DRUM)

Funding information

The International Community Foundation (The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust).

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Previously Published Citation

Suggested citation

Boulton, Rebecca A; Heimpel, George E. (2018). Mind the Gap: the evolution of oviposition site and specialisation in the parasitoid superfamily Chalcidoidea. Retrieved from the Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM), https://doi.org/10.13020/D6HQ22.

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