@article {1761, title = {Broad polyphyly and historical biogeography of the neotropical wasp genus Notiospathius (Braconidae: Doryctinae)}, journal = {Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution}, volume = {69}, year = {2013}, pages = {142-152}, abstract = {

Morphological convergence is a frequently observed pattern that occurs in species with similar environments,\ trophic niches, and/or life history strategies. In particular, adaptive morphological convergence is\ common in small, highly diverse invertebrate taxa sharing similar life history strategies such as parasitoidism.\ The genus Notiospathius is a braconid parasitoid wasp group with a vast, undetermined number\ of species distributed throughout the Neotropics. Members of this genus possess a considerably elongated,\ petiolate first metasomal tergite. This structure, however, also occurs in species of other doryctine\ genera, both closely and distantly related, probably due to adaptation for attacking wood and bark boring\ coleopteran larvae. Here we investigated the phylogenetic relationships among 117 species assigned to\ Notiospathius, including species of its closely related genera Masonius and Tarasco, as well as members\ of a number of other doryctine genera in order to test its monophyly. Separate and concatenated Bayesian\ partitioned analyses were carried out using two mitochondrial and three nuclear gene markers. The influence\ of each gene on the overall topology was verified using a cross-validation analysis for each marker\ with a \‘\‘leave-one-out\’\’ approach. Moreover, the historical biogeography of Notiospathius was assessed\ calculating divergence time estimates of clades with BEAST and performing ancestral area reconstruction\ analyses both with RASP (Bayesian and S-DIVA) and Lagrange (DEC). All analyses recovered a polyphyletic\ Notiospathius consisting of three separate clades that were more related to other doryctine genera\ than to each other. The relationships reconstructed could not be used to confidently establish the limits\ of Notiospathius with respect to its closely related genera Tarasco and Masonius, and thus the generic status\ of the latter two taxa is maintained. Our divergence time estimates and ancestral area reconstructions\ indicate that the most recent common ancestor of Notiospathius sensu stricto originated in the Caribbean\ subregion during the Oligocene\–Miocene boundary, and subsequently diversified during the mid- to late\ Miocene, radiating throughout the Neotropics.

}, keywords = {concatened analysis, Hymenoptera, Ichneumonoidea, parasitoid, phylogeny}, doi = {10.1016/j.ympev.2013.05.001}, author = {Ceccarelli, F.S. and A. Zaldivar-Riveron} } @article {933, title = {DNA barcoding a highly diverse group of parasitoid wasps (Braconidae: Doryctinae) from a Mexican nature reserve.}, journal = {Mitochondrial DNA}, volume = {21}, year = {2010}, pages = {18-23}, abstract = {

Background and aims. The preliminary results of a DNA barcoding study of the doryctine fauna of parasitoid wasps from the Chamela\–Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, a region dominated by tropical dry forest, are presented. So far, three field trips have been carried out to the reserve and 468 specimens have been collected, of which 407 cox1 sequences were obtained.
Materials and methods. The general mixed Yule-coalescent model was applied to a phylogram to investigate the number of evolutionary units that can be detected from the DNA sequence data examined.
Results. A total of 185 barcoding species assigned to 20 identified doryctine genera were discriminated using the above model, 115 of which belong to the speciose genus Heterospilus, pointing out the extraordinary species richness of this subfamily of insects in a Mexican tropical dry forest.
Conclusion. On the basis of the DNA barcodes generated, Ptesimogastroides Braet \& van Achterberg is proposed to be a junior synonym of Ptesimogaster Marsh syn. nov. Neoheterospilus was also found deeply nested within a large Heterospilus clade, suggesting the paraphyly of the latter genus.

}, keywords = {Braconidae, cox1, DNA barcoding, Doryctinae, Hymenoptera, tropical dry forest}, issn = {1940-1736}, doi = {10.3109/19401736.2010.523701}, author = {A. Zaldivar-Riveron and J.J. Martinez and Ceccarelli, F.S. and V.S. De Jesus-Bonilla and Rodriguez-Perez, A.C. and Resendiz-Flores, A. and Smith, M.A.} }