Contrasting phylogeograpic patterns of a phytophagous insect and its host plants
Résumé
Gene pools become subdivided because of many different reasons, but it is generally quite difficult to pinpoint the main factors contributing to that process. In each generation, individual phenotypes are confronted with changing environments and their fitness is assessed. If the bet to some variant proves correct, the prize can be a magnificent adaptive radiation; if wrong, extinction is the maximum penalty, because some choices may become
irreversible. Systems formed by host plants and phytophagous insects are, a priori, very good candidates for this kind of studies. In this communication we explore the phylogeographic relationships between populations of the Spanish Moon moth Graellsia isabellae and those of different Pinus spp. hosts. G. isabellae is a montane species whose larvae feed either on P. sylvestris, P. nigra or P. halepensis, depending on the population. Attending to morphological characteristics, the species is subdivided into five subspecies, associated to different mountain systems. Our results indicate that the mitochondrial genomes of these subspecies are indeed differentiated, that the time of coalescence of many of the identified mutations precedes the LGM, and that none of the Pinus hosts offers a phylogeographic pattern completely concordant with the relationships observed among them.
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