@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} }