Conserved community structure and simultaneous divergence events in the fig wasps associated with Ficus benjamina in Australia and China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Localised patterns of species diversity can be influenced by many factors, including regional species pools, biogeographic features and interspecific interactions. Despite recognition of these issues, we still know surprisingly little about how invertebrate biodiversity is structured across geographic scales. In particular, there have been few studies of how insect communities vary geographically while using the same plant host. We compared the composition (species, genera) and functional structure (guilds) of the chalcid wasp communities associated with the widespread fig tree, Ficus benjamina, towards the northern (Hainan province, China) and southern (Queensland, Australia) edges of its natural range. Sequence data were generated for nuclear and mtDNA markers and used

SUBMITTER: Darwell CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5883542 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature