We examine the phylogenetic relationships of Figitidae and discuss host use within this group in light of our own and previously published divergence time data. Our results suggest Figitidae, as currently defined, is not monophyletic. Furthermore, Mikeiinae and Pycnostigminae are sister‐groups, nested adjacent to Thrasorinae, Plectocynipinae and Euceroptrinae. The recovery of Pycnostigminae as sister‐group to Mikeiinae suggests two major patterns of evolution: (i) early Figitidae lineages demonstrate a Gondawanan origin (Plectocynipinae: Neotropical; Mikeiinae and Thrasorinae: Australia; Pycnostigminae: Africa); and (ii) based on host records for Mikeiinae, Thrasorinae and Plectocynipinae, Pycnostigminae are predicted to be parasitic on gall‐inducing Hymenoptera. The phylogenetic position of Parnips (Parnipinae) was unstable, and various analyses were conducted to determine the impact of this uncertainty on both the recovery of other clades and inferred divergence times; when Parnips was excluded from the total evidence analysis, Cynipidae was found to be sister‐group to [Euceroptrinae + (Plectocynipinae (Thrasorinae + (Mikeiinae + Pycnostigminae)))], with low support. Divergence dating analyses using BEAST indicate the stem‐group node of Figitidae to be c. 126 Ma; the dipteran parasitoids (Eucoilinae and Figitinae), were estimated to have a median age of 80 and 88 Ma, respectively; the neuropteran parasitoids (Anacharitinae), were estimated to have a median age of 97 Ma; sternorrhynchan hyperparasitoids (Charipinae), were estimated to have a median age of 110 Ma; the Hymenoptera‐parasitic subfamilies (Euceroptinae, Plectocynipinae, Trasorinae, Mikeiinae, Pycnostigminae, and Parnipinae), ranged in median ages from 48 to 108 Ma. Rapid radiation of Eucoilinae subclades appears chronologically synchronized with the origin of their hosts, Schizophora (Diptera). Overall, the exclusion of Parnips from the BEAST analysis did not result in significant changes to divergence estimates. Finally, though sparsely represented in the analysis, our data suggest Cynipidae have a median age of 54 Ma, which is somewhat older than the age of Quercus spp (30–50 Ma), their most common host.

Horse flies, family Tabanidae, are the most diverse family-level clade of bloodsucking insects, but their phylogeny has never been thoroughly explored using molecular data. Most adult female Tabanidae feed on nectar and on the blood of various mammals. Traditional horse fly classification tends towards large heterogeneous taxa, which impede much-needed taxonomic work. To guide renewed efforts in the systematics of horse flies and their relatives, we assembled a dataset of 110 exemplar species using nucleotide data from four genes -mitochondrial CO1, and nuclear 28S, CAD and AATS. All commonly recognized tribes in Tabanidae are represented, along with outgroups in Tabanomorpha. The phylogeny is reconstructed using Bayesian inference, and divergence times are estimated using Bayesian relaxed clock methods with time constraints from tabanid fossils. Our results show Athericidae strongly supported as the lineage most closely related to Tabanidae, and Pangoniinae and Tabaninae as monophyletic lineages. However, Chrysopsinae is nonmonophyletic, with strong support for both a nonmonophyletic Bouvieromyiini and for Rhinomyzini as sister to Tabaninae. Only the tribes Philolichini, Chrysopsini, Rhinomyzini and Haematopotini are recovered as monophyletic, although Scionini is monophyletic with exclusion of the peculiar genus Goniops Aldrich. Mycteromyia Philippi and Adersia Austen, two enigmatic genera sometimes placed in separate family-level groups, are recovered inside Pangoniini and Chrysopsini, respectively. Several species-rich genera are not recovered as monophyletic, including Esenbeckia Rondani, Silvius Meigen, Dasybasis Macquart and Tabanus L. Tabanidae likely originated in the Cretaceous, and all major extant groups were present by the early Palaeogene. This newly revised phylogenetic framework for Tabanidae forms the basis for a new assessment of tabanid diversification and provides context for understanding the evolution of trophic specialization in horse flies.

Plants that lack floral rewards may nevertheless attract pollinators if their flowers sufficiently resemble those of rewarding plants. Flowers of the South African terrestrial orchid Disa nervosa are similar in floral dimensions and spectral reflectance to those of a sympatric nectar-producing irid ( Watsonia densiflora s.l. ). Observations showed that the orchid and Watsonia share the same pollinator, a long-proboscid tabanid fly Philoliche aethiopica . These flies visited inflorescences of both species during their foraging bouts and most (64%) observed or captured on Watsonia inflorescences carried pollinaria of the orchid on their proboscides. They probe an average of 6.3 flowers on Watsonia inflorescences, but just 1.9 flowers on the Disa inflorescences, a behaviour which would strongly promote crosspollination in the self-compatible orchid. The orchid generally achieves high levels of pollination success, with approximately 50% of flowers receiving or exporting pollen at some sites. Pollination success was also high at one site that lacked Watsonia plants, suggesting that the orchid does not have an obligate dependence on Watsonia . Its pollination system may therefore be characterized as intermediate between generalized food deception and specific floral mimicry.

The relationship between where a female chooses to oviposit and her larvae's performance at those sites is critical to both the ecology and evolution of plant-insect interactions. For predispersal seed predators that do not themselves pollinate their host and whose larvae are sessile, females must be able to predict which flowers will ultimately be pollinated and set fruit, or be able to manipulate flowers in some way to ensure they set fruit. Otherwise, their offspring will perish. Here we describe the results of an experiment in which we tested if female Hylemya (Diptera: Anthomyiidae) are choosing oviposition sites wisely, or if they are manipulating flowers of their host, Ipomopsis aggregata (Polemoniaceae), in some way to ensure fruit set. Previous work in this system established a positive correlation between oviposition and fruit set. By bagging females on flowers, we removed their ability to choose flowers on which to oviposit. We found that flowers females oviposited on, whether bagged ("no choice") or unbagged ("female choice"), had a significantly higher probability of setting fruit than "control" flowers that we bagged but did not cage females on. In addition, we tested if Hylemya prefer particular architectural locations of flowers and if those locations correspond with higher than average fruit set. Although flowers at the distal end of the plant, and those most proximal to the main stem, were more likely to set fruit overall, Hylemya was no more likely to oviposit on those flowers than others on the plant. Taken together, our results suggest that Hylemya is somehow able to manipulate its host to ensure fruit set and thus the provisioning of their larvae.

Long-tongued horse flies (Diptera:Tabanidae:Pangoniinae) have proboscis lengths at least as long as their heads, the longest belonging to the Old World genus Philoliche (Wiedemann, 1820). These long proboscides are used to probe for nectar in deep-throated flowers. For some flower species, these flies are the only known pollinators. Although horse flies are both vectors of disease and important pollinators, there has been no previous study of phylogenetic relationships below the subfamily level. The first comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis for Philoliche (and consequently, Tabanidae) based on molecular data from one nuclear (CAD) and one mitochondrial (COI) gene is presented here. Using an exemplar approach, species from eight of nine tribes in all three subfamilies in Tabanidae were sampled, giving some of the first insights into relationships among the family as a whole. All nine subgenera of Philoliche, and multiple geographic representatives of the subgenus P. (Philoliche) (Wiedemann, 1820) in southern Africa were also sampled. Within the subgenus Philoliche, molecular support was found for a previously synonymised species. In general, these analyses sustain earlier intuitive classifications, but do not support the monophyly of all currently recognised subfamilies.

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