Biodiversity of Strepsiptera

Kathirithamby, Jeyaraney

doi:10.1002/9781118945582.ch22

Cited by 28 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…Usually, adult males are discovered as amber inclusions, for instance † Mengea tertiara (Menge, 1866; see also Kinzelbach and Pohl, 1994) and † Protoxenos (Pohl et al, 2005) from Baltic amber, † Cretostylops Grimaldi et Kathirithamby, † Kinzelbachilla and † Phthanoxenos Engel and Huang from Burmese amber (Grimaldi et al, 2005; Kathirithamby and Engel, 2014; Pohl and Beutel, 2016; Engel et al, 2016), † Protelencholax Kinzelbach from Dominican amber (Kinzelbach and Pohl, 1994), or a species of the extant family Myrmecolacidae from Eocene amber from north‐eastern China (Wang et al, 2016b). Amber fossils of adult females of the basal groups of Strepsiptera remain unknown (in contrast to Kathirithamby, [2018]). A tiny primary larva from Burmese amber was discovered recently (Pohl et al, 2018), and also a free‐living late instar, very likely an immature stage of † Mengea tertiara from Baltic amber (Pohl et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the value of Burmese amber for understanding insect evolution: Insights from †Heterobathmilla– an exceptional stem group genus of Strepsiptera (Insecta)

et al. 2020

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Burmese amber and amber from other periods and regions became a rich source of new extinct insect species and yielded important insights in insect evolution in the dimension of time. Amber fossils have contributed to the understanding of the phylogeny, biology, and biogeography of insects and other groups, and have also gained great importance for dating molecular trees. Another major potential is the documentation of faunal, floral and climatic shifts. Evolutionary transitions can be well‐documented in amber fossils and can reveal anatomical transformations and the age of appearance of structural features. Here, using a new stem group species of Strepsiptera from Burmite, we evaluate this potential of amber insect fossils to assess the current phylogeny of Strepsiptera, with the main emphasis on the early splitting events in the stem group. Amber fossils have greatly contributed to the understanding of the evolution of Strepsiptera in the late Mesozoic and the Cenozoic. †Heterobathmilla kakopoios Pohl and Beutel gen. et sp. n. described here is placed in the stem group of the order, in a clade with †Kinzelbachilla (†Kinzelbachillidae) and †Phthanoxenos (†Phthanoxenidae). †Phthanoxenidae has priority over †Kinzelbachillidae, and the latter is synonymised. The superb details available from this new fossil allowed us to explore unique features of the antennae, mouthparts, and male copulatory apparatus, and to provide a phylogenetic hypothesis for the order. The younger †Protoxenos from Eocene Baltic amber was confirmed as sister to all remaining extinct and extant groups of Strepsiptera, whereas the position of the Cretaceous †Cretostylops in the stem group remains ambivalent. While the value of Burmite and amber from other periods has a recognized impact on our knowledge of the evolution in various lineages, this new fossil does not fundamentally change our picture of the phylogeny and evolution of early Strepsiptera. However, it offers new insights into the morphological diversity in the early evolution of the group.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the value of Burmese amber for understanding insect evolution: Insights from †Heterobathmilla– an exceptional stem group genus of Strepsiptera (Insecta)

et al. 2020

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“…Known host associations between strepsipterans and ants are summarized (Kathirithamby & Hughes, 2002;Hughes et al, 2003;Cook, 2009;Kathirithamby et al, 2010;Kathirithamby, 2017). Many additional strepsipterans in genera known to infect ants have been described but have unknown host associations (see Strepsiptera database).…”

Section: Strepsiptera [23 Records]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathogens, parasites, and parasitoids of ants: a synthesis of parasite biodiversity and epidemiological traits

Quevillon

Hughes

2018

Preprint

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1.AbstractAnts are among the most ecologically successful organisms on Earth, with a global distribution and diverse nesting and foraging ecologies. Ants are also social organisms, living in crowded, dense colonies that can range up to millions of individuals. Understanding the ecological success of the ants requires understanding how they have mitigated one of the major costs of social living-infection by parasitic organisms. Additionally, the ecological diversity of ants suggests that they may themselves harbor a diverse, and largely unknown, assemblage of parasites. As a first step, we need to know the taxonomic and functional diversity of the parasitic organisms infecting ants. To that end, we provide a comprehensive review of the parasitic organisms infecting ants by collecting all extant records. We synthesize major patterns in parasite ecology by categorizing how parasites encounter their ant hosts, whether they require host death as a developmental necessity, and how they transmit to future hosts.We report 1,415 records of parasitic organisms infecting ants, the majority of which come from order Diptera (34.8%), phylum Fungi (25.6%), and order Hymenoptera (25.1%). Most parasitic organisms infecting ants are parasitoids (89.6%), requiring the death of their host as developmental necessity and most initially encounter their hosts in the extranidal environment (68.6%). Importantly, though most parasitic organisms infecting ants only need a single host to complete their life cycle (89.2%), the vast majority need to leave the nest before transmission to the next ant host can occur (88.3%), precluding ant-to-ant transmission within the nest. With respect to the host, we only found records for 9 out of 17 extant ant sub-families, and for 82 out of the currently recognized 334 ant genera. Though there is likely bias in the records reported, both host and parasite ecological traits and evolutionary histories underlie the pattern of ant-parasite association reported here. This work provides a foundation for future work that will begin to untangle the ecological drivers of ant-parasite relationships and the evolutionary implications thereof.

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“…There are eight extant families of Strepsiptera, the three largest being Halictophagidae (115 species), Stylopidae (163) and Xenidae (117) (Kathirithamby, 2018). However, many species of the large genus Stylops may have been misidentified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, many species of the large genus Stylops may have been misidentified. Thus, based on molecular identification, the genus likely has around 67 valid species (Straka et al, 2015), instead of 117 (Kathirithamby, 2018). Stylops stylopizes important bee pollinators of Andrena, causing the inhibition of ovary development (Pèrez, 1886;Smith and Hamm, 1914;Kathirithamby, 1989Kathirithamby, , 2009.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life history traits and interactions of Stylops advarians (Strepsiptera) with its bee host, Andrena milwaukeensis

Balzer

Davis

2020

Parasitology

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Specimens of Stylops advarians were sampled by collecting foraging bees of Andrena milwaukeensis along the South Saskatchewan River within Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As the foraging season progressed from early May till late June over three consecutive years (2016–2018), most stylopized bees possessed endoparasitic adult (neotenic) females of S. advarians protruding from the bee gaster's dorsum. In contrast, very few adult bees stylopized by male puparia, and no free-living males, were encountered. Over the sampling period, prevalence remained around 22% each year; mean intensity was 1.2 (range of 1–3 female parasites per bee); and parasite abundance was 0.27. Also newly reported for Stylops is the occurrence of one bee bearing four Stylops (two neotenic females and two males with puparia), plus another bee with a male puparium extruded from its gaster's sternites. Around 2 May each year, a high proportion of the earliest captured female bees were stylopized. However, non-stylopized female bees typically were not encountered until about 10 days later, suggesting the parasites manipulate female bee hosts to emerge earlier, in close synchrony to male bee emergence. First-instar larvae of S. advarians appeared from 22–25 May, indicating that adults of S. advarians matured and mated at similar times each season.

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Biodiversity of Strepsiptera

Cited by 28 publications

References 93 publications

On the value of Burmese amber for understanding insect evolution: Insights from †Heterobathmilla– an exceptional stem group genus of Strepsiptera (Insecta)

On the value of Burmese amber for understanding insect evolution: Insights from †Heterobathmilla– an exceptional stem group genus of Strepsiptera (Insecta)

Pathogens, parasites, and parasitoids of ants: a synthesis of parasite biodiversity and epidemiological traits

Life history traits and interactions of Stylops advarians (Strepsiptera) with its bee host, Andrena milwaukeensis

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