Speciation in kleptoparasites of oak gall wasps often correlates with shifts into new tree habitats, tree organs, or gall morphospace

• DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpad202
• Publication Date: 2023-11-09T18:31:37Z
• Authors: Anna K G Ward; Y Miles Zhang; Guerin E Brown; Alaine C Hippee; Kirsten M Prior; Shannon Rollins; Nicolas Sierra; Sofia I Sheikh; Carly M Tribull; Andrew A Forbes
• Keywords: Gall wasp

Abstract Host shifts to new plant species can drive speciation for plant-feeding insects, but how commonly do host also diversification the parasites of those same insects? Oak gall wasps induce galls on oak trees and novel tree hosts organs have been implicated as drivers wasp speciation. Gall are themselves attacked by many insect parasites, which must find their correct organ, navigate morphologically variable with they interact. Thus, we ask whether trees, organs, or morphologies correlate parasite diversification. We delimit infer phylogenies two genera kleptoparasites, Synergus Ceroptres, reared from a variety North American galls. that most were induced just one species, no was more than four species. Most kleptoparasite divergence events non-ancestral These often involved changes in habitat, location, morphology. thus driving both kleptoparasitic associates.