Quantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera – not Coleoptera – is the most speciose animal order

Forbes, Andrew A.; Bagley, Robin K.; Beer, Markus; Hippee, Alaine C.; Widmayer, Heather A.

doi:10.1101/274431

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Obviously, we do not claim this to be the sole causality. Additional drivers of species richness in this taxon have been identified from feeding on angiosperms, [32] to variation in the ability to resist extinction, [33], and it should also be noted that Hymenoptera may challenge the status of Coleoptera as the most speciose order [34]. Nevertheless, it is intriguing that beetle speciation appears to be particularly sped up in cases where lineages that first dispersed to new areas subsequently lost the ability to fly [35] (for evidence that colonization ability of beetles covaries with flight ability see [36]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Inordinate Fondness for Species with Intermediate Dispersal Abilities

Ashby

Shaw

Kokko

2019

Preprint

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JBS Haldane is widely quoted to have quipped that the Creator, if one exists, has an inordinate fondness for beetles. Although Coleoptera may not be the most speciose order once Hymenopteran diversity is fully accounted for, as a whole the very clear differences in species diversity among taxa require an explanation. Here we show both analytically and through stochastic simulations that dispersal has eco-evolutionary effects that predict taxa to become particularly species-rich when dispersal is neither too low nor too high. Our models combine recent advances in understanding coexistence in niche space with previously verbally expressed ideas, where too low dispersal imposes biogeographic constraints that prevent a lineage from finding new areas to colonize (reducing opportunities for allopatric speciation), while too high dispersal impedes population divergence, leading to few but widely distributed species. We show that this logic holds for species richness and is robust to a variety of model assumptions, but peak speciation rate is instead predicted to increase with dispersal. Our work unifies findings of increasing and decreasing effects of dispersal rate on speciation, and explains why organisms with moderate dispersal abilities have the best prospects for high global species richness.3

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Inordinate Fondness for Species with Intermediate Dispersal Abilities

Ashby

Shaw

Kokko

2019

Preprint

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“…Yet, HIPV use is particularly well studied for parasitoid wasps (Vet andDicke 1992, Turlings andErb 2018). Parasitoids comprise an important and highly species-rich group of carnivorous insects which may regulate herbivore populations (Forbes et al 2018). They lay eggs and develop inside or on a host insect, and therefore their ability to find these hosts is closely linked to their fitness (Thiel and Hoffmeister 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific variation in herbivore‐induced plant volatiles influences the spatial range of plant–parasitoid interactions

Aartsma

Leroy

Werf

et al. 2018

Oikos

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Chemical information influences the behaviour of many animals, thus affecting species interactions. Many animals forage for resources that are heterogeneously distributed in space and time, and have evolved foraging behaviour that utilizes information related to these resources. Herbivore‐induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), emitted by plants upon herbivore attack, provide information on herbivory to various animal species, including parasitoids. Little is known about the spatial scale at which plants attract parasitoids via HIPVs under field conditions and how intraspecific variation in HIPV emission affects this spatial scale. Here, we investigated the spatial scale of parasitoid attraction to two cabbage accessions that differ in relative preference of the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata when plants were damaged by Pieris brassicae caterpillars. Parasitoids were released in a field experiment with plants at distances of up to 60 m from the release site using intervals between plants of 10 or 20 m to assess parasitism rates over time and distance. Additionally, we observed host‐location behaviour of parasitoids in detail in a semi‐field tent experiment with plant spacing up to 8 m. Plant accession strongly affected successful host location in field set‐ups with 10 or 20 m intervals between plants. In the semi‐field set‐up, plant finding success by parasitoids decreased with increasing plant spacing, differed between plant accessions, and was higher for host‐infested plants than for uninfested plants. We demonstrate that parasitoids can be attracted to herbivore‐infested plants over large distances (10 m or 20 m) in the field, and that stronger plant attractiveness via HIPVs increases this distance (up to at least 20 m). Our study indicates that variation in plant traits can affect attraction distance, movement patterns of parasitoids, and ultimately spatial patterns of plant–insect interactions. It is therefore important to consider plant‐trait variation in HIPVs when studying animal foraging behaviour and multi‐trophic interactions in a spatial context.

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“…Hymenopterous parasitoids are one of the most species-rich groups in the animal kingdom, with about 50,000 described species (Godfray, 1994). Numerous species are still unknown, especially in the tropics (Gokhman, 2018), and it is believed that hymenopterous parasitoids might comprise about 20% of all insects, or between 530,000 and 6,000,000 species (Forbes, Bagley, Beer, Hippee, & Widmayer, 2018;LaSalle & Gauld, 1991). Thus, as stated by Askew (1968) for the largest parasitoid superfamily Chalcidoidea (Noyes, 2016), this group is "in a state of active evolution at the present time."…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive isolation due to prezygotic isolation and postzygotic cytoplasmic incompatibility in parasitoid wasps

König

Zundel²,

Krimmer

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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The reproductive barriers that prevent gene flow between closely related species are a major topic in evolutionary research. Insect clades with parasitoid lifestyle are among the most species‐rich insects and new species are constantly described, indicating that speciation occurs frequently in this group. However, there are only very few studies on speciation in parasitoids. We studied reproductive barriers in two lineages of Lariophagus distinguendus (Chalcidoidea: Hymenoptera), a parasitoid wasp of pest beetle larvae that occur in human environments. One of the two lineages occurs in households preferably attacking larvae of the drugstore beetle Stegobium paniceum (“DB‐lineage”), the other in grain stores with larvae of the granary weevil Sitophilus granarius as main host (“GW‐lineage”). Between two populations of the DB‐lineage, we identified slight sexual isolation as intraspecific barrier. Between populations from both lineages, we found almost complete sexual isolation caused by female mate choice, and postzygotic isolation, which is partially caused by cytoplasmic incompatibility induced by so far undescribed endosymbionts which are not Wolbachia or Cardinium. Because separation between the two lineages is almost complete, they should be considered as separate species according to the biological species concept. This demonstrates that cryptic species within parasitoid Hymenoptera also occur in Central Europe in close contact to humans.

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Quantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera – not Coleoptera – is the most speciose animal order

Cited by 40 publications

References 64 publications

An Inordinate Fondness for Species with Intermediate Dispersal Abilities

An Inordinate Fondness for Species with Intermediate Dispersal Abilities

Intraspecific variation in herbivore‐induced plant volatiles influences the spatial range of plant–parasitoid interactions

Reproductive isolation due to prezygotic isolation and postzygotic cytoplasmic incompatibility in parasitoid wasps

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