Phylogeny of the Oxycoryninae s. l. (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) and evolution of plant-weevil interactions

MARVALDI, A. E.; LYAL, C. H. C.; OBERPRIELER, R. G.; ANDERSON, R. S.; BRADBURY, T.

Brisbane, Australia

Congreso; XXII International Congress of Entomology; 2004

Phylogenetic relationships among the Oxycoryninae sensu lato (Curculionoidea, Belidae) are reconstructed on the basis of adult and larval morphology. Representative species of the genera of Oxycoryninae are included as terminals in a cladistic analysis, plus several outgroup taxa in the sister subfamily Belinae, the Nemonychidae and chrysomeloid Palophaginae. Based on the phylogenetic tree, shifts in larval feeding habits (concerning host plant taxa and tissues consumed) are traced. The association with conifers is ancestral and retained by Oxycraspedus, whereas the other groups of genera evolved associations with angiosperms (palms, Balanophoraceae and some other dicot angiosperms). Evidence suggests that secondary host shifts occurred from root-parasitic Balanophoraceae onto Hydnoraceae (Hydnorobius) and Zamiaceae (Rhopalotria and Parallocorynus) in the New World, and perhaps from palms onto Celastraceae (Afrocorynus) and Vitaceae (Hispodes) in the Old World.  Larval development in vegetative tissues of reproductive organs is apparently ancestral in the oxycorynine clade and is conserved in all or most groups of genera, but development in rotting wood characterizes the Aglycyderini.  Structural, chemical and/or ecological similarities of the plant organs consumed apparently play a major influence in the colonization of different plant taxa by this group of weevils.