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Can ecological interactions drive evolutionary outcomes? Evidence from insect host shifts between parasitic and non-parasitic plants

Zelvelder, B.; Kergoat, G. J.; Benoit, L.; Tsuchida, T.; Haran, J.; Allio, R.

2026-02-09 evolutionary biology
10.1101/2024.04.03.587887 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Phytophagous insects have specialized on virtually every plant lineage. Parasitic plants, however, are uncommon hosts. Among insects, only a single lineage of weevils, the Smicronychini, has successfully radiated on both parasitic and non-parasitic plants in a large panel of distantly related Asterid families. This unusual pattern suggests that major host plant shifts have occurred over the course of their diversification. Through the analysis of a phylogenomic dataset, we reconstruct for the first time their evolutionary history and ancestral host plant associations. Our results show that independent host plant shifts occurred both from parasitic to non-parasitic hosts and between distinct parasitic lineages. These results suggest that host shift mechanisms can be driven by ecological opportunities provided by plant-plant interactions. This first evidence of extreme insect host plant shifts apparently mediated by parasitic plant-plant interactions emphasizes the core importance of ecological interactions as driving forces behind insect host plant shifts.

Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (predicted rank #13) · training set

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