Comprehensive phylogenomic analyses re-write the evolution of parasitism within cynipoid wasps.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Parasitoidism, a specialized life strategy in which a parasite eventually kills its host, is frequently found within the insect order Hymenoptera (wasps, ants and bees). A parasitoid lifestyle is one of two dominant life strategies within the hymenopteran superfamily Cynipoidea, with the other being an unusual plant-feeding behavior known as galling. Less commonly, cynipoid wasps exhibit inquilinism, a strategy where some species have adapted to usurp other species' galls instead of inducing their own. Using a phylogenomic data set of ultraconserved elements from nearly all lineages of Cynipoidea, we here generate a robust phylogenetic framework and timescale to understand cynipoid systematics and the evolution of these life histories.

Results

Our reconstructed ev

SUBMITTER: Blaimer BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7686688 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature