Much evidence suggest that host plant-insect herbivore associations influence herbivore lineage diversification. Such interactions may promote host race formation and/or speciation among pine cone feeding beetles. Thirteen species are endemic to North America but they are not well defined by morphology and thus, many species were described based only on the criteria that they were found in different hosts. Whether these species represent monophyletic groups associated with a particular host remains unknown. We address this issue with a phylogenetic analysis of 45 Conophthorus mitochrondrial cytochrome oxidase I haplotypes and an analysis of the association between the resulting lineages with the beetles' host trees. We find few cases of exclusive association between host and beetle species. The data suggest that geographic isolation promotes lineage diversification.
Species 1: Coleoptera Scolytinae Conophthorus
Keywords: phylogenetics, molecular
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA