@article {1940, title = {Species delimitation, global phylogeny and historical biogeography of the parasitoid wasp genus Spathius (Braconidae: Doryctinae) reveal multiple Oligocene{\textendash} Miocene intercontinental dispersal events}, year = {2017}, abstract = {

Phylogenetic studies of globally distributed taxa are crucial to estimate the mode and tempo of common intercontinental\ biogeographic processes. However, few of these studies have focused on invertebrates, mainly because their\ taxonomy and species richness generally are highly neglected. Here we performed a morphological and mtDNA\ sequence-based species delineation analysis for 111 specimens of the cosmopolitan, speciose parasitoid wasp genus\ Spathius (Braconidae) and assessed its phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography adding two nuclear\ markers. Seventy-one species of Spathius were delimited. Neither the monophyly of Spathiini, Spathius, nor its\ species groups were recovered. Based on the relaxed molecular clock and ancestral area reconstruction analyses,\ the Oriental appears as the most plausible region of origin for Spathius, whereas various intercontinental dispersal\ events probably played an important role in its species diversification. At least three and two dispersal events from\ the Oriental to the Ethiopian and Australian regions, respectively, were estimated to occur during the late Oligocene\ to mid-Miocene, c. 25\–15 Mya. Dispersal to the Palaearctic and Nearctic from the Ethiopian region probably occurred\ during the early Miocene, c. 20 Mya. Our results overall reflect that the worldwide distribution of Spathius was\ acquired early in the evolutionary history of the lineage.

}, keywords = {COI mtDNA, dispersal, molecular phylogeny, Species delineation}, doi = {10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx050}, author = {A. Zaldivar-Riveron and S.A. Belokobylskij and R.N. Meza-Lazaro and C. Pedraza-Lara and M. Garcia-Paris and A.S. Meseguer} } @article {1934, title = {Phylogenomics and mitochondrial genome evolution of the gall-associated doryctine wasp genera (Hymenoptera: Braconidae)}, journal = {Systematics and Biodiversity}, volume = {17}, year = {2019}, pages = {731{\textendash}744}, chapter = {731}, abstract = {

The braconid subfamily Doryctinae is a cosmopolitan, highly diverse group of wasps mainly represented by parasitoid\ species. In this subfamily, however, there is a group of mainly Neotropical genera whose species are associated with\ galls of several vascular plant families. Previous molecular phylogenetic studies based on a few markers consistently\ recovered the monophyly of this group, though various relationships among genera and the monophyly of its most\ speciose genus, Allorhogas Gahan, remained unresolved. We characterized the mitogenomes of 13 representative species\ of the gall-associated doryctine clade and performed a phylogenomic analysis with both mitogenome and ultraconserved\ element (UCE) DNA sequence data to assess the classification of Doryctinae and to examine the evolution of\ phytophagy within the group. We found different patterns of tRNA gene rearrangements, two of which are present in\ most of the ingroup taxa. All phylogenetic analyses yielded highly similar, well-supported topologies that are congruent\ with relationships reported in previous studies. The resulting phylogenies confirmed Percnobracon as sister to the\ remaining genera and supported two separate clades whose genera are exclusively associated with Ficus (Moraceae).\ Allorhogas is confirmed to be polyphyletic. The combined evidence also supported a main Allorhogas clade composed\ of multiple phytophagous species that feed on at least five different host plant families. Further rearing records and\ phylogenetic studies are needed to examine host plant shifts and to broaden our understanding of a poorly studied\ radiation of gall-associated wasps.

}, keywords = {Ichneumonoidea, mitogenome, Neotropics, phylogenomics, phytophagy, ultraconserved elements}, doi = {10.1080/14772000.2019.1685608}, author = {E. Samaca-Saenz and R.N. Meza-Lazaro and M.G. Branstetter and A. Zaldivar-Riveron} }