Coevolutionary interactions between plants and their associated pollinators and seed dispersers are thought to have promoted the diversification of flowering plants (Raven 1977; Regal 1977; Stebbins 1981). The actual mechanisms by which pollinators could drive species diversification in plants are not fully understood. However, it is thought that pollinator host specialization can influence the...

Historical abiotic factors such as climatic oscillations and extreme climatic events as well as biotic factors have shaped the structuring of species' genetic diversity. In obligate species-specific mutualisms, the biogeographic histories of the interacting species are tightly linked. This could be particularly true for nuclear genes in the Ficus-pollinating wasp mutualistic association as the ...

The family Polydnaviridae is of interest because it provides the best example of viruses that have evolved a mutualistic association with their animal hosts. Polydnaviruses in the genus Bracovirus are strictly associated with parasitoid wasps in the family Braconidae, and evolved ∼100 million years ago from a nudivirus. Each wasp species relies on its associated bracovirus to parasitize hosts, ...

Several signaling pathways, including the JAK/STAT and Toll pathways, are known to activate blood cells (hemocytes) in Drosophila melanogaster larvae. They are believed to regulate the immune response against infections by parasitoid wasps, such as Leptopilina boulardi, but how these pathways control the hemocytes is not well understood. Here, we discuss the recent discovery that both muscles a...

Protandry in insects is the tendency for adult males to emerge before females and usually results from intra-sexual selection. However, the genetic basis of this common phenomenon is poorly understood. Pollinating fig wasp (Agaonidae) larvae develop in galled flowers within the enclosed inflorescences ('figs') of fig trees. Upon emergence, males locate and mate with the still galled females. Af...

There is evidence that pollinators are declining as a result of local and global environmental degradation [1-4]. Because a sizable proportion of the human diet depends directly or indirectly on animal pollination [5], the issue of how decreases in pollinator stocks could affect global crop production is of paramount importance [6-8]. Using the extensive FAO data set [9], we compared 45 year se...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Adaptation to different pollinators is thought to drive divergence in flower colour and morphology, and may lead to interspecific reproductive isolation. Floral diversity was tested for association with divergent pollinator preferences in a group of four closely related wildflower species: the yellow-flowered Mimulus luteus var. luteus and the red-pigmented M. l. variegatus,...