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ViewAttendees 12

SysEB

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad 10-min: SysEB, Biodiversity

Cryptic diversity in a seemingly generalist parasitoid

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Student Competition On-Demand
Parasitic insects tend to either be specialists on a few similar hosts, or generalists using a wide range of different hosts. While generalists may benefit from their access to more potential hosts, adaptations that increase fitness on any one host might result in trade-offs that reduce fitness on alternative hosts, which could lead to specialization. Given this, increasing host variation along axes relevant to parasite success should favor the evolution of specialized habits. Oak galls, which are induced by gall-forming cynipid wasps, are used as hosts by an assortment of parasites, and vary greatly in several dimensions including morphology, phenology, and chemistry. This high degree of gall trait variation should drive parasites toward specialization. It is therefore unexpected that some oak-gall-associated parasite species attack many galls. The Hymenopteran parasitoid species Ormyrus labotus attacks highly variable galls of >65 cynipid gallformers, such that it has one of the largest apparent host breadths of parasites in oak gall systems. We used an integrative approach, pairing mtCOI sequencing with ecological data, to test whether O. labotus is actually a single generalist species. We find evidence that O. labotus is a complex of ~23 taxa each with a much more restricted host range. These results add to a growing body of research highlighting undiscovered cryptic diversity, which collectively have important implications for understanding the origin and maintenance of biodiversity and guiding biocontrol efforts.