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Cospeciation of ants and plants

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Ecological Research

Cospeciation, in which both parties of an ecological interaction speciate in parallel with each other, has rarely been reported in biotic associations except the cases for host–parasite interaction. Many tropical plants house ants and thereby gain protection against herbivores. Although these ant–plant symbioses have been regarded as classical cases of coevolved mutualism, no evidence of cospeciation has been documented. The Asian ant–plant association between Crematogaster ants and Macaranga plants is highly species specific and the molecular phylogeny of the ants parallels the plant phylogeny, reflecting history of cospeciation. Evidence is presented that this association has been maintained over the past seven million years. Phylogeographic patterns of 27 ants from two Macaranga species suggest that allopatric cospeciations are still in progress in Asian wet tropics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Shinshu University, Asahi 3-1-1, Matsumoto, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan

    Takao Itino

  2. Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Stuart J. Davies

  3. Institute of Biodiversity and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia

    Stuart J. Davies

  4. Laboratory of Applied Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Kita-gun, Kagawa, 761-0795, Japan

    Hideko Tada, Yoshihiro Hieda & Mika Inoguchi

  5. Laboratory of Applied Entomology, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Takao Itioka

  6. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan

    Seiki Yamane

  7. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kamitanakami, Hirano-cho, Otsu, 520–2113, Japan

    Tamiji Inoue

Authors
  1. Takao Itino
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  2. Stuart J. Davies
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  3. Hideko Tada
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  4. Yoshihiro Hieda
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  5. Mika Inoguchi
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  6. Takao Itioka
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  7. Seiki Yamane
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  8. Tamiji Inoue
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Correspondence to Takao Itino.

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Itino, T., Davies, S., Tada, H. et al. Cospeciation of ants and plants. Ecol Res 16, 787–793 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1703.2001.00442.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1703.2001.00442.x

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