Co-phylogeography in a six-way interaction: geographical co-diversification in an ant-plant community

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Coevolution between plants and insects is thought to be a major factor leading to species diversity in tropical rainforests. If so, when did this diversifying coevolution occur? Here, we estimated the coevolutionary history of the six-way interaction involving ant-plants in Southeast Asian tropics, using a molecular phylogenetic approach. The phylogenies of the six members showed that the ant-plant association was formed about 20 million years ago, and sequential involvement of the other four members occurred afterward. In addition, it was suggested that the geographical diversification within species in each member occurred synchronously.