Data from: Phylogenetic Relationships of Fig Wasps Pollinating Functionally Dioecious Ficus Based on Mitochondrial DNA Sequences and Morphology|生态学数据集|分子生物学数据集

The obligate mutualism between pollinating fig wasps in the family Agaonidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) and Ficus species (Moraceae) is often regarded as an example of coevolution but little is known about the history of the interaction and understanding the origin of functionally dioecious fig pollination has been especially difficult. The phylogenetic relationships of fig wasps pollinating functionally dioecious Ficus were inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase gene sequences (mtDNA) and morphology. Separate and combined analyses indicated that the pollinators of functionally dioecious figs are not monophyletic. However, pollinator relationships were generally congruent with host phylogeny and support a revised classification of Ficus. Ancestral changes in pollinator ovipositor length were also correlated with changes in fig breeding system. In particular, the relative elongation of the ovipositor was associated with the repeated loss of functionally dioecious pollination. The concerted evolution of interacting morphologies may bias estimates of phylogeny based on female head characters but homoplasy is not so concerted in other morphological traits. The lesser phylogenetic utility of morphology compared to mtDNA is not due to rampant convergence in morphology but rather to the greater number of potentially informative characters in DNA sequence data and patterns of nucleotide substitution also limit the utility of mtDNA. None the less, inferring the ancestral associations of fig pollinators from the best-supported phylogeny provided strong evidence of host conservatism in this highly specialized mutualism.