College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
J Insect Sci. 2020 Jul 1;20(4). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/ieaa081.
Glochidion plants and Epicephala moths played different roles and kept the balance in the mutualism. We studied the four coexisting Epicephala species on Glochidion sphaerogynum in detail and reconstructed the phylogenic tree of 40 Gracillariidae species. The results showed that one of them (Epicephala impolliniferens) did not pollinate G. sphaerogynum, because of lacking the specialized structure of carrying pollen. These results suggested that E. impolliniferens acted as a 'cheater' in the system. The phylogenetic analyses suggested that E. impolliniferens derived from a pollinating species, and had secondarily gave up the ability to pollinate. This is a typical phenomenon of mutualism reversal. The phenomenon exhibits the co-evolutionary diversification under selection pressures.
团扇榕属植物和榕透翅毒蛾在互惠共生中扮演着不同的角色并维持着共生关系的平衡。我们详细研究了在团扇榕上共存在的四种榕透翅毒蛾，重建了 40 种毒蛾科物种的系统发育树。结果表明，其中一种（不授粉榕透翅毒蛾）由于缺乏携带花粉的特化结构，并未给团扇榕授粉。这些结果表明，不授粉榕透翅毒蛾在该系统中充当了“骗子”的角色。系统发育分析表明，不授粉榕透翅毒蛾起源于一个授粉物种，后来又放弃了授粉的能力。这是一个典型的互惠关系逆转现象。这种现象展示了在选择压力下的协同进化多样化。
