Gain and loss of specialization in two oil-bee lineages, Centris and Epicharis (Apidae)

It is plausible that specialized ecological interactions constrain geographic ranges. We address this question in neotropical bees, Centris and Epicharis, that collect oils from flowers of Calceolariaceae, Iridaceae, Krameriaceae, Malpighiaceae, Plantaginaceae, or Solanaceae, with different species...

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Published inEvolution Vol. 69; no. 7; pp. 1835 - 1844
Main Authors Martins, Aline C., Melo, Gabriel A. R., Renner, Susanne S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2015
Society for the Study of Evolution
Oxford University Press
Subjects
Animal Distribution
Animals
Apidae
Bees
Bees - genetics
Bees - physiology
Biogeography
Biological Evolution
Biological taxonomies
Centris
Evolution
Flowers
Flowers & plants
Genera
geographic ranges
Hair
Insect pollination
Iridaceae
Krameriaceae
Magnoliopsida - physiology
Malpighiaceae
molecular clock dating
oil flowers
Oils & fats
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Plant glands
plant-insect interactions
Plantaginaceae
Plants
Pollination
Solanaceae
molecular clock dating
phylogenetics
oil flowers
plant-insect interactions
Bees
geographic ranges
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Summary:It is plausible that specialized ecological interactions constrain geographic ranges. We address this question in neotropical bees, Centris and Epicharis, that collect oils from flowers of Calceolariaceae, Iridaceae, Krameriaceae, Malpighiaceae, Plantaginaceae, or Solanaceae, with different species exploiting between one and five of these families, which either have epithelial oil glands or hair fields. We plotted the level of oil-host specialization on a clock-dated phylogeny for 22 of the 35 species of Epicharis and 72 of the 230 species of Centris (genera that are not sister genera) and calculated geographic ranges (km2) for 23 bee species based on collection data from museum specimens. Of the oil-offering plants, the Malpighiaceae date to the Upper Cretaceous, whereas the other five families are progressively younger. The stem and crown groups of the two bee genera date to the Cretaceous, Eocene, and Oligocene. Shifts between oil hosts from different families are common in Centris, but absent in Epicharis, and the direction is from flowers with epithelial oil glands to flowers with oil hairs, canalized by bees' oil-collecting apparatuses, suitable for piercing epithelia or mopping oil from hair fields. With the current data, a link between host specialization and geographic range size could not be detected.
Bibliography:istex:7F5900ED6C5F9C5C43382C6CB30D1ADCAD4A3001
Figure S1. Maximum-likelihood tree for Calceolaria rooted on Kohleria (Gesneriaceae) based on a matrix of 103 taxa and 1544 aligned nucleotides. Figure S2. Maximum-likelihood tree for Sysirinchieae, Trimezieae, and Tigridieae rooted on Iris based on a matrix of 100 taxa and 5905 aligned nucleotides. Figure S3. Maximum-likelihood tree for Krameriaceae and Nierembergia (Solanaceae). Figure S4. Chronogram for Calceolariaceae rooted on Kohleria (Gesneriaceae) obtained under a Bayesian relaxed clock model from the same matrix as used in Figure S1. Figure S5. Chronogram for Sysirinchieae, Trimezieae, and Tigridieae obtained under a Bayesian relaxed clock model from the same matrix as used in Figure S2. Figure S6. Chronograms for Nierembergia and Krameria. Table S1. Bee species and angiosperm families visited for oil collecting, with relevant references. Table S2. Range sizes for 23 bee species, used in the statistical tests for a correlation between range size and oil-host specialization.
ArticleID:EVO12689
ark:/67375/WNG-9635GQCV-1
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1111/evo.12689