Wednesday, December 12, 2001 - 2:56 PM
0895

Evolutionarily labile symbiosis between bacteria and dryophthorine weevils

Brian Christopher O'Meara and Brian D Farrell. Harvard University, Farrell Lab, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA

According to Moran and Telang 1998, "No study has yet produced evidence contradicting the hypothesis of parallel phylogenesis for bacteriocyte-associated endosymbiosis in insects." We have found evidence for multiple switches in associations between dryophthorine weevils and their bacterial endosymbionts using phylogenies derived from Bayesian and parsimony-based analyses.

Species 1: Coleoptera Curculionidae Sitophilus oryzae (rice weevil)
Species 2: Coleoptera Curculionidae Metamasius hemipterus
Keywords: Symbiosis, Bayesian

The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA