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Invertebrate Systematics Invertebrate Systematics Society
Systematics, phylogeny and biogeography
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Psyllid communication: acoustic diversity, mate recognition and phylogenetic signal

Diana M. Percy A E F , Gary S. Taylor B and Martyn Kennedy C D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

B School of Agriculture and Wine, Waite Campus, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

C Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.

D Current address: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand.

E Current address: Centre for Plant Research, University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, 6804 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.

F Corresponding author. Email: dmpercy@interchange.ubc.ca

Invertebrate Systematics 20(4) 431-445 https://doi.org/10.1071/IS05057
Submitted: 4 December 2005  Accepted: 2 June 2006   Published: 29 August 2006

Abstract

Acoustic signals play an important role in mate selection and speciation in diverse groups of insects. We report reciprocal acoustic mate signalling, often as highly synchronised duetting, for several species of psyllid (Hemiptera : Psylloidea). We reveal that considerable acoustic diversity is present in Australian psyllids belonging to the family Triozidae. The acoustic signals are species and gender specific. Our acoustic analysis and observations suggest that acoustic signals are important in both species recognition and mate selection in psyllids. We found a significant level of phylogenetic signal in the acoustic data when we compared divergence in genetic data (obtained from mitochondrial DNA sequences of the small subunit rRNA) with divergence in acoustic signals in two groups of Australian psyllids. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on DNA sequence data supports the monophyly of the Eucalyptus-feeding genus Schedotrioza Tuthill & Taylor, 1955, whereas a diverse but little known group on Casuarinaceae hosts appears to be paraphyletic. These two psyllid groups also differ in amounts of geographical and ecological sympatry. We found a significant positive correlation between acoustic distance and genetic distance using pairwise comparisons for all taxa, but the trends within the two groups differ due to a negative association between acoustic and genetic divergence among the sympatric taxa. Phylogenetic information in acoustic data may be greatest in recently speciating and allopatric groups because of increased acoustic divergence in sympatric taxa and greater acoustic convergence in more distantly related species.

Additional keywords: acoustic communication, Allocasuarina, Casuarinaceae, Eucalyptus, Psylloidea, speciation, substrate vibration, Triozidae.


Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by the Leverhulme Trust (studentship award to D.P.). M.K. was supported by a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship. The recording equipment was purchased with a grant from the Systematics Association (awarded to D.P.). We thank Chris Hardy (University of Glasgow) for the construction of the amplifier, and Rob Magrath (Australian National University) for assistance with Canary software. For comments on the manuscript we thank Quentin Cronk and three anonymous reviewers. We thank Chris Burwell, Pam Dale and David Hollis for supplying psyllid material for molecular analysis.


References


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Appendix 1.  Taxa sampled for the molecular and acoustic analyses
An asterisk after the species name indicates taxa for which acoustic data are available. GenBank numbers are given for all haplotypes except those that were only sampled for the acoustic analyses (indicated by a dash). Abbreviations of Australian states: ACT, Australian Capital Territory; NSW, New South Wales; QLD, Queensland; SA, South Australia; VIC, Victoria. Plant family abbreviations: CASU, Casuarinaceae; EUPH, Euphorbiaceae; MALV, Malvaceae; MORA, Moraceae; MYRT, Myrtaceae. Samples were collected by D. Percy unless indicated by initials after the taxon name: CB, Chris Burwell; DH, David Hollis; PD, Pam Dale
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Appendix 2.  Acoustic character list and character matrix used to calculate acoustic distance between psyllid taxa
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Appendix 2b.  Acoustic character matrix
A dash indicates inapplicable character and a question mark indicates missing data
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