2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Does host shifting in phytophagous insects promote diversification in their parasitoid wasps?: testing hypotheses of sequential speciation

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23870037
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Evolutionary biology
Research Institution	Kyoto Prefectural University
Principal Investigator	OHSHIMA Issei 京都府立大学, 大学院・生命環境科学研究科, 助教 (50466455)
Research Collaborator	KAWAMURA Tomohiro 京都府立大学, 大学院・生命環境科学研究科, 博士前期課程 1回生
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2012
Keywords	植食性昆虫 / 寄主転換 / 寄生蜂 / 寄主範囲 / 種分化 / 遺伝的分化 / ホストレース
Research Abstract	To test the hypothesis of sequential speciation, the present study focused on parasitoid wasps of a leaf-mining moth, Acrocercops transecta (Gracillariidae), which consists of host races between Juglandaceae and Ericaceae plants. I assessed the genetic diversity between parasitoid wasps emerged from the Juglandaceae race and from the Ericaceae race and compared the structure of parasitoid communities of the two host races. A phylogenetic study using mitochondrial COI gene did not distinguish the parasitoids from the two host races. However, the parasitoid communities are clearly distinct between the two host races, indicating that host plants play an important role in the host selection of parasitoid wasps.