No concordant phylogeographies of the rose gall wasp Diplolepis rosae (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae) and two associated parasitoids across Europe

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e47156. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047156. Epub 2012 Oct 11.

Abstract

According to the Host-tracking Hypothesis, species of higher trophic levels with a close relationship to their hosts, such as parasites or parasitoids, are expected to show spatio-temporal phylogeographic patterns similar to those of their host. Alternatively, with ecological sorting, a subset of the local species pools might shift to a related host species, thereby disengaging common phylogeographic patterns. Here, we compare the phylogeographic structures of the cynipid rose gall wasp Diplolepis rosae across Europe and of two of its most common parasitoids, the wasps Orthopelma mediator and Glyphomerus stigma, by analysing the sequences of two gene fragments (COI and ITS 2). The phylogeographic structures of the three species associated with roses were incongruent. D. rosae had the lowest genetic diversity with one major clade, O. mediator showed the classical phylogeographic structure for Europe with one eastern and one western clade, and G. stigma had the highest diversity but no geographical structuring. This discordance of geographical patterns may be explained by 1) the dispersal propensity of adult parasitoids or 2) the parasitoids having the ability to switch to another host, while the primary host becomes rare or is even not available. Furthermore there was no indication that phylogenetic patterns were affected by Wolbachia infections. Our results document that communities of closely interacting species may be the result of idiosyncratic biogeographic histories.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution
  • Europe
  • Haplotypes
  • Phylogeny
  • Phylogeography
  • Population Dynamics
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Wasps / genetics
  • Wasps / microbiology
  • Wasps / physiology*
  • Wolbachia / physiology

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; http://www.dfg.de/index.jsp) within the Priority Programme SPP 1127 (Adaptive Radiation – Origin of Biological Diversity) and by the FAZIT-Stiftung Gemeinnützige Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Germany (http://www.fazit-stiftung.de). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.