Plant-feeding insects are the cause of about 25 % of macroscopic biodiversity. This research is designed to report variables leading to this diversity by examining phylogenetic relationships within a large radiation of herbivorous insects, Phytomyza leaf-mining flies (Diptera: Agromyzidae). Following a short intro (Chapter 1), an over-all summary of phylogenetic patterns in phytophagous insects is provided, depending on over 200 phytophagous insect phylogenies from the latest literature (Chapter 2). A handful of prominent results include 1) host use conservatism at the family level predominates, with shifts occurring at about 5% of speciation events; 2) host shifts really are a key cause of speciation, happening in about 50 % of 145 speciation events tabulated; 3) insect-host associations mostly reflect colonization of already diversified host plant clades; and 4) variation in diversification rates isn’t yet well-documented for phytophagous insects, except at the broadest scale….
Contents: Patterns of Diversification in Phytophagous Insects: Phylogeny and Evolution of Phytomyza Leaf-mining Flies (Diptera: Agromyzidae)
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Phylogenetic Dimension of Insect-Plant Interactions: A Review of Recent Evidence
Conservatism of Host-Plant Use
Conservation of Host-Taxon Associations
Variation in Rates of Major Host Shift
Other Conserved Aspects of Host Use
Parallelism, Reversal, and Genetic Constraints on Host Shift
Conservatism, Host Shifts, and Speciation
Phylogenesis of Host Range
Signatures of Long-Term History in Extant Insect-Plant Interactions
Diversification of Phytophagous Insects
Synopsis and Conclusions
Chapter 3: Phylogeny of the Leaf-mining Fly Genus Phytomyza Fallén s.lat. (Diptera: Agromyzidae), with Comments on Life History Traits and on the Status of
Chromatomyia Hardy
Introduction
Methods
Taxon sampling
Extraction and sequencing
Phylogenetic analysis
Results
Discussion
Delimitation of Phytomyza
Species groups, major clades and infra-generic classification of Phytomyza
The status of Chromatomyia
Evolution of life history and host use
Chapter 4: The History of a Temperate Adaptive Radiation: Diversification and Host Use Evolution in Phytomyza Leaf-mining Flies (Diptera: Agromyzidae)
Introduction
Phylogenetic patterns in insect/plant evolution
Earth history, niche conservatism, and “biome tracking”
Study group: leaf-mining flies
Fossil history
Study aims
Methods
Data sets and divergence time estimation
Ancestral host reconstruction
Diversification rate analysis
Results
Divergence time estimates
Diversification rate analysis
Discussion
Fossil calibrations and age of the Agromyzidae…
Source: University of Maryland