Topic
Triplaris
About: Triplaris is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 41 publications have been published within this topic receiving 895 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: Molecular and morphological data support the hypothesis of a sister‐group relationship between Pseudomyrmecinae and Myrmeciinae (84% parsimony bootstrap, combined dataset), which implies a Cretaceous origin of the stem‐group pseudomyrnecines in the southern hemisphere.
Abstract: . The ant subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae comprises three genera of hyperoptic, arboreal ants, widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions: Pseudomyrmex (∼200 species, New World), Myrcidris (two species, South America) and Tetraponera (∼100 species, Palaeotropics). The phylogenetic relationships among these ants were investigated using DNA sequence data (∼5.2 kb from 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless, abdominal-A, and long-wavelength rhodopsin genes) and 144 morphological characters, both separately and in combination. Data were gathered from a representative set of forty-nine pseudomyrmecine species, plus eighteen species from various outgroups. There was substantial agreement among the results obtained from different datasets, and from different methods of phylogenetic inference (parsimony, Bayesian inference). The monophyly of the following groups is strongly supported (100% bootstrap support and 1.00 posterior probability in the molecular dataset): Pseudomyrmecinae, Pseudomyrmex, and Pseudomyrmex + Myrcidris. The status of the genus Tetraponera is less clear: the DNA sequence data indicate that the genus is paraphyletic, but morphological features and a unique insertion in the 28S gene support the monophyly of this taxon. Seven of nine Pseudomyrmex species groups, established previously on the basis of morphology alone, are strongly upheld, but monophyly is rejected for the P. pallens group and the P. viduus group. In the latter case, molecular evidence indicates the existence of two independent clades, associated with the ant-plants Triplaris and Tachigali, respectively, whose convergent morphological features had caused them to be placed erroneously in the same species group. The present results confirm an earlier assertion that obligate associations with domatia-bearing plants have arisen at least twelve times in the subfamily. Molecular and morphological data support the hypothesis of a sister-group relationship between Pseudomyrmecinae and Myrmeciinae (84% parsimony bootstrap, combined dataset), which implies a Cretaceous origin of the stem-group pseudomyrmecines in the southern hemisphere. Pseudomyrmecines appear to have arisen in the Palaeotropics and later dispersed from Africa to South America, where they experienced a pronounced burst of diversification.
223 citations
TL;DR: Phylogenetic relationships within Polygonaceae, with an emphasis on Polygonum and segregate genera, are investigated using sequence data from the chloroplast gene rbcL, showing the currently recognized subfamilies are likely not monophyletic.
Abstract: Phylogenetic relationships within Polygonaceae, with an emphasis on Polygonum and segregate genera (e.g., Emex, Persicaria, Polygonella), are investigated using sequence data from the chloroplast gene rbcL. The results show the currently recognized subfamilies are likely not monophyletic. Polygonum as currently recognized is paraphyletic. Three strongly supported clades of Polygonum s.l. were found. Contained within these three clades of Polygonum s.l. are representatives of Atraphaxis, Bistorta, Koenigia and Persicaria. Other strongly supported clades found are Coccoloba, Eriogonum, Fagopyrum, Rumex and Triplaris. Patterns of character evolution were studied by mapping characters onto the phylogeny. A woody habit likely evolved multiple times within the family (in Atraphaxis, Koenigia, Muehlenbeckia, Polygonella and in the ancestor to the Eriogonum–Brunnichia clade). Quincuncial aestivation likely evolved early in the history of the family with four subsequent losses in the Rumex–Oxyria clade, M...
100 citations
TL;DR: A cladistic analysis indicates that much of the diversification of the Pseudomyrmex viduus group occurred before the Pleistocene, and that the interactions with Triplaris and Tachigali plants are also of Tertiary origin.
95 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that the ant-housing Vachellia (Mimosoideae) clade and its ants co-diversified for the past 5 Ma, with some species additionally colonized by younger plant-nesting ant species, some parasitic.
Abstract: Symbioses include some of the clearest cases of coevolution, but their origin, loss or reassembly with different partners can rarely be inferred. Here we use ant/plant symbioses involving three plant clades to investigate the evolution of symbioses. We generated phylogenies for the big-eyed arboreal ants (Pseudomyrmecinae), including 72% of their 286 species, as well as for five of their plant host groups, in each case sampling more than 61% of the species. We show that the ant-housing Vachellia (Mimosoideae) clade and its ants co-diversified for the past 5 Ma, with some species additionally colonized by younger plant-nesting ant species, some parasitic. An apparent co-radiation of ants and Tachigali (Caesalpinioideae) was followed by waves of colonization by the same ant clade, and subsequent occupation by a younger ant group. Wide crown and stem age differences between the ant-housing genus Triplaris (Polygonaceae) and its obligate ant inhabitants, and stochastic trait mapping, indicate that its domatium evolved earlier than the ants now occupying it, suggesting previous symbioses that dissolved. Parasitic ant species evolved from generalists, not from mutualists, and are younger than the mutualistic systems they parasitize. Our study illuminates the macroevolutionary assembly of ant/plant symbioses, which has been highly dynamic, even in very specialized systems.
67 citations
TL;DR: Great aggressiveness and alertness to foreign objects, better eyesight, larger size, and an individual foraging technique appear to be responsible for the greater foraging success of Pseudomyrmex when compared with Crematogaster.
Abstract: Foraging parameters of two ant species, Pseudomyrmex triplarinus and Cremato- gaster sp., on P. triplarinus-occupied shrubs of Triplaris surinamensis were evaluated in a semi- deciduous forest of Mato Grosso, western Brazil. Live workers of the termite Microcerotermes strunckii, used as baits for ants, were placed on leaves in the lower, medium and upper thirds of the crown of thirty experimental Triplaris (nine baits/plant). Besides attacking more than twice as many baits as Crematogaster (131 against 59), Pseudomyrmex also attacked them signifi- cantly faster. Pseudomyrmex patrolled the plant uniformly, while Crematogaster patrolled more intensively the lower portion of the crown of Triplaris. Baits retrieved by Pseudomyrmex were taken to their nests in the stem galleries of Triplaris; those retrieved by Crematogaster were carried to nearby nests in the forest understory. Greater aggressiveness and alertness to foreign objects (i.e. baits), better eyesight, larger size, and an individual foraging technique appear to be responsible for the greater foraging success of Pseudomyrmex when compared with Crematogaster.
44 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2018 | 1 |
| 2017 | 1 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2015 | 3 |