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Effects of Host Specialization on Local Adaptation and Speciation in a Hyperdiverse Genus of Phytophagous Tropical Rain Forest Beetles (Coleoptera: Hispinae)

EPA Grant Number: FP916386
Title: Effects of Host Specialization on Local Adaptation and Speciation in a Hyperdiverse Genus of Phytophagous Tropical Rain Forest Beetles (Coleoptera: Hispinae)
Investigators: McKenna, Duane D.
Institution: Harvard University
EPA Project Officer: McClure, Karen
Project Period: January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004
Project Amount: $86,964
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (2004)
Research Category: Academic Fellowships , Fellowship - Entomology , Biology/Life Sciences

Description:

Objective:

The objective of this research project is to combine molecular phylogenetic methods with field ecological studies to address predictions of the specialization-speciation hypothesis fundamental to understanding how host specialization influences local adaptation and speciation in herbivorous tropical insects. Specifically, the research addresses the assumption that relative diet specialist species exhibit more population structure than relative diet generalists by examining pairwise genetic distances (estimated from DNA sequence data) between population pairs of relative diet specialist and diet generalist Cephaloleia beetle species collected along an approximately 1,000 km transect through lower Central America. I am addressing a second assumption, namely, that diet specialist lineages should be more prone to speciation than diet generalist lineages, by applying methods for analyzing rates and patterns of diversification to a detailed species-level molecular phylogeny of the genus Cephaloleia.

Approach:

Taken as a whole, these data should provide a convenient framework for examining the consequences of diet specialization for local adaptation and speciation in the genus Cephaloleia. Understanding how host specialization influences local adaptation and speciation is an important step towards linking pattern and process in the evolution of species diversity and may permit more efficient and accurate forecasting and amelioration of the effects of anthropogenic landscape change on insect diversity.

Supplemental Keywords:

fellowship, relative diet specialist, relative diet generalist, Cephaloleia, specialization, speciation, anthropogenic landscape change, molecular phylogenetic methods, local adaptation, Central America, herbivorous tropical insects, tropical rain forest beetles, , Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Biology, exploratory research environmental biology, Ecological Indicators, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Entomology, evolutionary biology, speciation, plant-animal interactions, predictive species model, insect landscape interactions, biological control agents, tropical rain forest beetles, species formation, bioassessment, molecular phylogenic research

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The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.

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