Collaborative Research: Chemical Ecology of Host Specialization in Phorid Parasitoids of Ants: An Experimental Analysis

本项目旨在发现蝇科蚂蚁寄生性寄主特异性的生态和进化过程。作为一个群体，这些寄生蜂在新热带地区有100多种，其中大多数是非常专门化的，攻击一种或几种密切相关的蚂蚁物种。由一名天然产物化学家、一名进化生物学家和一名行为生态学家组成的研究小组将重点研究寄主蚂蚁在交流中使用的化学信号（信息素），这是寄主蚂蚁定位寄主并在寄主体内产卵的主要线索。一旦寄生蜂用来寻找寄主的化学信号被确定，研究人员将通过吸引寄生蜂并诱导它们产卵新寄主来观察它们是否正常发育，从而实验性地量化寄主特异性的限制。然后将这些化学信号映射到宿主的系统发育树上，并与拟寄生物的系统发育树进行比较，以确定化学信号的分布如何影响宿主特异性的进化和向新宿主的转移。本项目的研究成果将在拟寄生虫和害虫生物防治方面具有广泛的应用前景。该项目的教育和推广目标包括：1)培训美国、拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的研究生和本科生，学习天然产物化学以及昆虫生活史专业的生态、行为和进化方面的知识；2)在科学研究过程中培养中学科学教师；3)利用项目成果和产品为犹他州K-12教室开发探究式学习活动（）。这些会议将集中讨论科学问题，如保护和生物多样性、适应和物种相互作用以及生命的家谱，所有这些都是犹他州科学核心课程的一部分。

This project seeks to discover the ecological and evolutionary processes that govern host specificity of insect parasitoids of ants in the fly family Phoridae. As a group, these parasitoids consist of several 100 species in the Neotropical Region, most of which are extremely specialized, attacking one or a few closely related ant species. The research group, consisting of a natural products chemist, an evolutionary biologist and a behavioral ecologist, will focus on the chemical signals host ants use in communication (pheromones) as the primary cue by which the parasitoids locate hosts and lay their eggs in them. Once the chemical signals parasitoids use to find hosts are identified, the investigators will experimentally quantify the limits of host specificity by attracting parasitoids and inducing them to oviposit novel hosts to see if they develop normally. These chemical signals will then be mapped onto the phylogenetic tree of hosts and compared to the phylogenetic tree of the parasitoids to determine how the distribution of chemical signals shape the evolution of host specificity and shifts to novel hosts. Results of the project will have broad application to insect parasitoids and the potential for biological control of insect pests. Educational and outreach goals of the project include: 1) training US, Latin American and Caribbean graduate and undergraduate students in natural products chemistry and the ecological, behavioral and evolutionary aspects of life history specialization in insects; 2) training secondary school science teachers in the process of scientific research; and 3) using the results and products of the project to develop inquiry-based learning activities (IBAs) for Utah K-12 classrooms. These IBAs will focus on scientific issues such as conservation and biodiversity, adaptations and species interactions, and the family tree of life, all of which are part of the Utah state science core curriculum.