|
Host tracking by Cymothoe (Nymphalidae) feeding on Rinorea (Violaceae): evolution & mechanisms of association
|
 |
Robin van Velzen
Identifying factors driving patterns of association between phytophagous insects and their host plants is one of the main themes in the field of insect-plant interactions. One hypothesis states that host shifts are predominant, and possibly adaptive, and mediated by the functional similarities of secondary chemistry in the hosts. An alternative hypothesis is that host shifts are rare, and insect lineages remain associated with their plants hosts, a process which may eventually result in parallel cladogenesis or cospeciation.
This project considers the evolution of host plant associations of Cymothoe butterflies feeding on Rinorea. This phytophagous system is unique within current knowledge of Nymphalidae host plant relationships because of its high level of specificity and the large number of congeneric species involved.
My research aims at using a comparative phylogenetic, experimental approach by combining insect and host-plant phylogenetic trees with data from host-plant phytochemistry and behavioural experiments. This will enable us to go beyond correlations and similarity, and provide actual experimental evidence for the role of phytochemicals as host-plant recognition templates. The project is intended to involve DNA barcoding and Bayesian phylogenetic methods, topology as well as model based methods for phylogenetic congruence testing, HPLC-DAD-SPE-NMR techniques to elucidate Rinorea phytochemicals, and behavioural experiments in the field.
Currently, I am working on the molecular phylogenetics of Cymothoe using mtDNA COI and nrDNA wingless, CAD and IDH gene sequences. In addition, I am building a Cymothoe DNA barcode library in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding and a network of specialist collectors of African butterflies such as Torben Larsen, Gael vande Weghe, David Lees, Duke Knoop, Steve Collins and Steve Woodhall.
The project is supervised by Freek Bakker and Marc Sosef. Collaborative contacts include Joop van Loon (Laboratory of Entomology, WUR), Niklas Wahlberg (Turku, Finland), Jerzy Jaroszewski (Copenhagen, Denmark), Gaston Achoundong (Yaoundé, Cameroon), Steph Menken (IBED, UvA) and Paul Hebert (Guelph, Canada).