TY - JOUR
T1 - Macroevolution of insect-plant associations
T2 - The relevance of host biogeography to host affiliation
AU - Becerra, Judith X.
AU - Venable, D. Lawrence
PY - 1999/10/26
Y1 - 1999/10/26
N2 - Identifying the factors that have promoted host shifts by phytophagous insects at a macroevolutionary scale is critical to understanding the associations between plants and insects. We used molecular phylogenies of the beetle genus Blepharida and its host genus Bursera to test whether these insects have been using hosts with widely overlapping ranges over evolutionary time. We also quantified the importance of host range coincidence relative to host chemistry and host phylogenetic relatedness. Overall, the evolution of host use of these insects has not been among hosts that are geographically similar. Host chemistry is the factor that best explains their macroevolutionary patterns of host use. Interestingly, one exceptional polyphagous species has shifted among geographically close chemically dissimilar plants.
AB - Identifying the factors that have promoted host shifts by phytophagous insects at a macroevolutionary scale is critical to understanding the associations between plants and insects. We used molecular phylogenies of the beetle genus Blepharida and its host genus Bursera to test whether these insects have been using hosts with widely overlapping ranges over evolutionary time. We also quantified the importance of host range coincidence relative to host chemistry and host phylogenetic relatedness. Overall, the evolution of host use of these insects has not been among hosts that are geographically similar. Host chemistry is the factor that best explains their macroevolutionary patterns of host use. Interestingly, one exceptional polyphagous species has shifted among geographically close chemically dissimilar plants.
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.96.22.12626
DO - 10.1073/pnas.96.22.12626
M3 - Article
C2 - 10535973
AN - SCOPUS:0033607273
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 96
SP - 12626
EP - 12631
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 22
ER -