Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 14 July 1989:
Vol. 245. no. 4914, pp. 173 - 175
DOI: 10.1126/science.245.4914.173
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

A 48-Million-Year-Old Aphid—Host Plant Association and Complex Life Cycle: Biogeographic Evidence

NANCY A. MORAN 1

1 Department of Entomology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.

Biogeographical and paleobotanical evidence suggests that the aphid subtribe Melaphidina has been associated with its sumac host plant since the early Eocene when these plants were continuously distributed across the Bering land bridge. Transfer experiments indicate that the American species, Melaphis rhois, shows an unusual complex life cycle, similar to that known in Chinese melaphidines, with some generations feeding on mosses as alternate host plants. As with the association with sumac, this complex life cycle may have been established in the melaphidine lineage before the southward retreat of sumac from Alaska 48 million years ago. This example suggests that the interactions and life histories shown by modern populations may be determined, in large part, by evolutionary commitments made in the distant past.

Submitted on March 14, 1989
Accepted on May 17, 1989


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Profile of Nancy A. Moran.
N. Zagorski (2005)
PNAS 102, 16916-16918
   Full Text »    PDF »
Synchronous coadaptation in an ancient case of herbivory.
J. X. Becerra (2003)
PNAS 100, 12804-12807
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Paleobiology of middle Eocene plant-insect associations from the Pacific Northwest: A preliminary report.
C. C. Labandeira and C. C. Labandeira (2002)
Rocky Mountain Geology 37, 31-59
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)