DNA barcodes affirm that 16 species of apparently generalist tropical parasitoid flies (Diptera, Tachinidae) are not all generalists.

ABSTRACT: Many species of tachinid flies are viewed as generalist parasitoids because what is apparently a single species of fly has been reared from many species of caterpillars. However, an ongoing inventory of the tachinid flies parasitizing thousands of species of caterpillars in Area de Conservación Guanacaste, northwestern Costa Rica, has encountered >400 species of specialist tachinids with only a few generalists. We DNA-barcoded 2,134 flies belonging to what appeared to be the 16 most generalist of the reared tachinid morphospecies and encountered 73 mitochondrial lineages separated by an average of 4% sequence divergence. These lineages are supported by collateral ecological information and, where tested, by independent nuclear markers (28S and ITS1), and we therefore view these lineages as

SUBMITTER: Smith MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1821123 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature