Pacific Southwest

Title: Mitochondrial phylogeny of pine cone beetles (Scolytinae, Conophthorus) and their affiliation with geographic area and host

Author: Cognato, Anthony I.; Gillette, Nancy E.; Campos Bolanos, Rodolfo; Sperling, Felix A.H.

Date: 2005

Source: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 36: 494-508

Description: Pine cone beetles (Conophthorus spp.) feed and kill immature cones of Pinus species, thereby reducing seed production and seriously impairing reforestation of forest ecosystems. Population variation of Conophthorus reproductive behavior has hampered the development of semiochemical control of these pests. This diYculty is compounded by a lack of taxonomic knowledge and species diagnostic characters. Researchers and managers rely, in part, on host associations and geographic locality for species identiWcations and these have arguable taxonomic utility. However, host use and/or geographic separation may influence Conophthorus lineage diversiWcation. To improve Conophthorus taxonomy and understand the association of host and geography with lineage diversifcation, a phylogeny of 43 individuals, including all valid species and a robust sample of C. ponderosae from diVerent hosts, is reconstructed using 785 nucleotides of the 3'-end of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene. Thirty trees were recovered in a parsimony analysis and the strict consensus was well resolved and supported by branch support measures. Conophthorus was monophyletic but mitochondrial polyphyly was uncovered for several species. The data also suggested an underestimation of species diversity. Phylogenetically related Conophthorus lineages were signiWcantly associated with geographic proximity but not with host, as indicated by comparisons of character optimized geographic distributions and host associations against randomized distributions of these attributes on the parsimony tree. These results suggest that geographic separation better explains the mode of Conophthorus lineage diversiWcation than does host specialization. Based on these results, researchers and managers of Conophthorus should consider populations as potentially diVerent evolutionary entities until species boundaries are delineated via a robust phylogenetic revision of Conophthorus.

Keywords: Scolytidae; Molecular systematics; Forest pest; Host use; Evolution

View and Print this Publication (1.41 MB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Cognato, Anthony I.; Gillette, Nancy E.; Campos Bolanos, Rodolfo; Sperling, Felix A.H.  2005.  Mitochondrial phylogeny of pine cone beetles (Scolytinae, Conophthorus) and their affiliation with geographic area and host.   Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 36: 494-508.