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Coevolutionary fine-tuning: evidence for genetic tracking between a specialist wasp parasitoid and its aphid host in a dual metapopulation interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2011

F.N. Nyabuga ,
H.D. Loxdale ,
D.G. Heckel  and
W.W. Weisser
F.N. Nyabuga*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University, Dornburger Strasse 159, 07743 Jena, Germany Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Strasse 8, 07745 Jena, Germany
H.D. Loxdale
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University, Dornburger Strasse 159, 07743 Jena, Germany Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Strasse 8, 07745 Jena, Germany
D.G. Heckel
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Strasse 8, 07745 Jena, Germany
W.W. Weisser
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University, Dornburger Strasse 159, 07743 Jena, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence Fax: +46-40-46 21 66 E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the interaction between two ecologically-associated species, the population structure of one species may affect the population structure of the other. Here, we examine the population structures of the aphid Metopeurum fuscoviride, a specialist on tansy Tanacetum vulgare, and its specialist primary hymenopterous parasitoid Lysiphlebus hirticornis, both of which are characterized by multivoltine life histories and a classic metapopulation structure. Samples of the aphid host and the parasitoid were collected from eight sites in and around Jena, Germany, where both insect species co-occur, and then were genotyped using suites of polymorphic microsatellite markers. The host aphid was greatly differentiated in terms of its spatial population genetic patterning, while the parasitoid was, in comparison, only moderately differentiated. There was a positive Mantel test correlation between pairwise shared allele distance (DAS) of the host and parasitoid, i.e. if host subpopulation samples were more similar between two particular sites, so were the parasitoid subpopulation samples. We argue that while the differences in the levels of genetic differentiation are due to the differences in the biology of the species, the correlations between host and parasitoid are indicative of dependence of the parasitoid population structure on that of its aphid host. The parasitoid is genetically tracking behind the aphid host, as can be expected in a classic metapopulation structure where host persistence depends on a delay between host and parasitoid colonization of the patch. The results may also have relevance to the Red Queen hypothesis, whereupon in the ‘arms race’ between parasitoid and its host, the latter ‘attempts’ to evolve away from the former.

Keywords

aphidMetopeurum fuscoviridehymenopterous parasitoidLysiphlebus hirticornistansy plantTanacetum vulgarespecialistgenetic variabilitygenetic trackingmetapopulation
Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 102 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 149 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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