Genetic and morphological variation in sexual and asexual parasitoids of the genus Lysiphlebus - an apparent link between wing shape and reproductive mode.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Morphological divergence often increases with phylogenetic distance, thus making morphology taxonomically informative. However, transitions to asexual reproduction may complicate this relationship because asexual lineages capture and freeze parts of the phenotypic variation of the sexual populations from which they derive. Parasitoid wasps belonging to the genus Lysiphlebus Foerster (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) are composed of over 20 species that exploit over a hundred species of aphid hosts, including many important agricultural pests. Within Lysiphlebus, two genetically and morphologically well-defined species groups are recognised: the "fabarum" and the "testaceipes" groups. Yet within each group, sexual as well as asexual lineages occur, and in L. fabarum d

SUBMITTER: Petrovic A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4332431 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature