Uncovering tropical diversity: six sympatric cryptic species of Blepharoneura (Diptera: Tephritidae) in flowers of Gurania spinulosa (Cucurbitaceae) in eastern Ecuador

Abstract

Diversification of phytophagous insects is often associated with changes in the use of host taxa and host parts. We focus on a group of newly discovered Neotropical tephritids in the genus Blepharoneura, and report the discovery of an extraordinary number of sympatric, morphologically cryptic species, all feeding as larvae on calyces of flowers of a single functionally dioecious and highly sexually dimorphic host species (Gurania spinulosa) in eastern Ecuador. Molecular analyses of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase-I gene from flies reared from flowers of G. spinulosa reveal six distinct haplotype groups that differ by 7.2-10.1% bp (uncorrected pairwise distances; N = 624 bp). Haplotype groups correspond to six distinct and well-supported clades. Members of five clades specialize on the calyces of flowers of a particular sex: three clades comprise male flower specialists; two clades comprise female flower specialists; the sixth clade comprises generalists reared from male and female flowers. The six clades occupy significantly different morphological spaces defined by wing pigmentation patterns; however, diagnostic morphological characters were not discovered. Behavioural observations suggest specific courtship behaviours may play a role in maintaining reproductive isolation among sympatric species. Journal compilation

Nuclear-Mitochondrial Barcoding Exposes the Global Pest Western Flower Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) as Two Sympatric Cryptic Species in Its Native California

“…As such, our Þndings are perhaps better evidence for the existence of a reproductive barrier in the Þeld. Although it is not unusual to Þnd two or more species of Frankliniella in the same set of ßowers (Mound 2002), the coexistence of the two species at least suggests some distinct difference in their biology, for example an afÞliation with different host parts (e.g., Condon et al 2008). Future research should focus on identifying morphological, behavioral, and/or ecological differences between the two species previously recognized as F. occidentalis.…”

Is a mango just a mango? Testing within-fruit oviposition site choice and larval performance of a highly polyphagous fruit fly

“…When combined with the findings of this paper, that host use varies at the within fruit level, the accumulating results suggest that for even as polyphagous an insect as B. dorsalis, a relatively small range of host plant attributes may be involved in host acceptance and/or utilisation. What these attributes may be is as yet unknown, but the recent findings of up to six cryptic species of tephritine feeding within the flower heads of a single daisy species (Condon et al 2008) suggests an extraordinary ability of tephtritids to detect subtle host differences. This ability may have implications for speciation in this highly diverse family, where there is increasing evidence for host associated cryptic species (Abreu et al 2005;Stireman et al 2005;Knio et al 2007a,b;Marsteller et al 2009;Smith et al 2009).…”

Through thick and thin: Cryptic sympatric speciation in the submersed genus Najas (Hydrocharitaceae)

“…Cryptic sympatric species occur across a spectrum of phenotypically simple and complex organisms including ants (Ferreira et al, 2010), butterflies (Hebert et al, 2004), fish (Feulner et al, 2006), flies (Condon et al, 2008), frogs (Stuart et al, 2006), fungi (Bidochka et al, 2005), mammals (Baker, 1984), onychophorans (Trewick, 1998), and protists (Amato et al, 2007). In contrast, there are surprisingly few reports of cryptic sympatric plant species (e.g., Heinrichs et al, 2011) despite inferences that ''instant speciation'' via polyploidy (Coyne and Orr, 2004;Linder and Rieseberg, 2004; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2014.09.022 1055-7903/Ó 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.…”