Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve

25 May, 11 AM - 25 May, 01 PM

This research seeks to characterize the roles of biogeography, host plant associations, and congeneric interactions in biological diversification. While the life history details are complex, a diverse group of North American galling insects, including Tamalia aphids, is host to non-galling species (called inquilines) to which they are closely related. Both parasitism and competition govern their interactions, and there is evidence of cryptic host-plant races of both inquilines and their host gall-inducers, providing the opportunity to investigate the roles of these ecological interactions in generating evolutionary patterns of diversification. Specific aims of the proposed research 1) Was the origin of inquilinism in Tamalia galling aphids associated with a host-plant shift, and does this reflect the phylogeographic history of the host-plant clade? 2) What is the phylogenetic evidence for host-race formation in gall-inducers and inquilines? Is the apparently greater rate of host-race formation in inquilines upheld across large geographic areas and over a wide range of host plants? 3) What roles might population structure play in the diversification of inquilines? Is there ecological evidence for differential dispersal rates which might accelerate diversification rates in inquilines? I propose to collect gall-inducers and their inquilines from as many wide-ranging species of Arbutus, Arctostaphylos and Comarostaphylis as possible. For each host plant, samples will be taken from widely separated populations, to control for effects of geographic separation on phylogenetic relationships. Collection efforts will concentrate on California but will also include sampling from previously unstudied populations in Mexico.

Visit #21609 @Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 21850 | Research

THE EFFECTS OF NON-TROPHIC INTERACTIONS AND POPULATION STRUCTURE ON HOST RACE FORMATION IN A GALLING APHID

faculty - California State University (CSU), Chico

Reservation Members(s)

Donald Miller May 25, 2010 (1 days)

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