Adaptation to host-plant defences through key innovations is a driving force of evolution in phytophagous insects. Species of the neotropical bruchid genus Acanthoscelides Schilsky are known to be associated with specific host plants. The speciation processes involved in such specialization pattern that have produced these specific associations may reflect radiations linked to particular kinds of host plants. By studying host-plant associations in closely related bruchid species, we have shown that adaptation to a particular host-plant (e.g. with a certain type of secondary compounds) could generally lead to a radiation of bruchid species at the level of terminal branches. However, in some cases of recent host shifts, there is no congruence between genetic proximity of bruchid species, and taxonomic similarity of host plants. At deeper branches in the phylogeny, vicariance or long-distance colonization events seem to be responsible for genetic divergence between well-marked clades rather than adaptation to host plants. Our study also suggests that the few species of Acanthoscelides described from the Old World, as well as Neotropical species feeding on Mimosoideae, are misclassified, and are more closely related to the sister genus Bruchidius.
Con el fin de determinar la diversidad de especies de Bruchidae del estado de Tabasco, se realizaron colectas a través de (1) muestras de semillas secas, y (2) colecta manual directa. Un total de 3578 ejemplares en 14 géneros y 49 especies fueron registradas de las cuales 37 especies son nuevas para Tabasco. De las 35 plantas hospederas colectadas, nueve fueron registradas como nuevas hospederas asociadas. Se presenta una diagnosis y clave con esquemas de genitalia para las especies de uchidae de Tabasco.
Insects in the subfamily Ischnorhininae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cercopidae), known as spittlebugs or froghoppers, are mainly distributed in the Neotropical region. A few genera include pest species of economic relevance, including Prosapia Fennah, 1949. Two new species from Mexico and Costa Rica are now described for this genus, and a key to species is proposed for the P. inferens (Walker, 1858) species group.
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