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Unravelling mummies: cryptic diversity, host specificity, trophic and coevolutionary interactions in psyllid – parasitoid food webs

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, June 2017
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Title
Unravelling mummies: cryptic diversity, host specificity, trophic and coevolutionary interactions in psyllid – parasitoid food webs
Published in
BMC Ecology and Evolution, June 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12862-017-0959-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Aidan A. G. Hall, Martin J. Steinbauer, Gary S. Taylor, Scott N. Johnson, James M. Cook, Markus Riegler

Abstract

Parasitoids are hyperdiverse and can contain morphologically and functionally cryptic species, making them challenging to study. Parasitoid speciation can arise from specialisation on niches or diverging hosts. However, which process dominates is unclear because cospeciation across multiple parasitoid and host species has rarely been tested. Host specificity and trophic interactions of the parasitoids of psyllids (Hemiptera) remain mostly unknown, but these factors are fundamentally important for understanding of species diversity, and have important applied implications for biological control. We sampled diverse parasitoid communities from eight Eucalyptus-feeding psyllid species in the genera Cardiaspina and Spondyliaspis, and characterised their phylogenetic and trophic relationships using a novel approach that forensically linked emerging parasitoids with the presence of their DNA in post-emergence insect mummies. We also tested whether parasitoids have cospeciated with their psyllid hosts. The parasitoid communities included three Psyllaephagus morphospecies (two primary and, unexpectedly, one heteronomous hyperparasitoid that uses different host species for male and female development), and the hyperparasitoid, Coccidoctonus psyllae. However, the number of genetically delimited Psyllaephagus species was three times higher than the number of recognisable morphospecies, while the hyperparasitoid formed a single generalist species. In spite of this, cophylogenetic analysis revealed unprecedented codivergence of this hyperparasitoid with its primary parasitoid host, suggesting that this single hyperparasitoid species is possibly diverging into host-specific species. Overall, parasitoid and hyperparasitoid diversification was characterised by functional conservation of morphospecies, high host specificity and some host switching between sympatric psyllid hosts. We conclude that host specialisation, host codivergence and host switching are important factors driving the species diversity of endoparasitoid communities of specialist host herbivores. Specialisation in parasitoids can also result in heteronomous life histories that may be more common than appreciated. A host generalist strategy may be rare in endoparasitoids of specialist herbivores despite the high conservation of morphology and trophic roles, and endoparasitoid species richness is likely to be much higher than previously estimated. This also implies that the success of biological control requires detailed investigation to enable accurate identification of parasitoid-host interactions before candidate parasitoid species are selected as biological control agents for target pests.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 7 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 43 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Spain 1 2%
Unknown 42 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 7 16%
Researcher 7 16%
Student > Bachelor 6 14%
Student > Postgraduate 4 9%
Student > Master 4 9%
Other 6 14%
Unknown 9 21%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 20 47%
Environmental Science 4 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 3 7%
Psychology 1 2%
Sports and Recreations 1 2%
Other 3 7%
Unknown 11 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 December 2021.
All research outputs
#7,303,959
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#1,664
of 3,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#109,853
of 331,668 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Ecology and Evolution
#40
of 69 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 71st percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,714 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.5. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 331,668 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 69 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.