Network structure variation across scales offers clues to the macroevolutionary persistence of specialised mutualisms

This is a study of the diversity and species-specificity of a plant-insect mutualism that uses multilocus molecular phylogenetic and species interaction network analyses. Field sampling collected larvae of leafflower moths (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae: Epicephala spp.) from different host species of leafflower trees (Phyllanthaceae: Glochidion) at eight sites in southern China (Guangzhou and Hainan provinces and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region). Larvae were preserved in ethanol or reared to adulthood (and the resulting adults preserved in ethanol) for DNA extractions; collection site and host plant species were recorded for each individual moth collected. DNA was Sanger-sequenced for three loci (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I, COI; nuclear arginine kinase, ArgK; nuclear elongation-factor 1-alpha, EF1-α). Phylogenetic inference was conducted on these samples. Minimally monophyletic clades with posterior probabilities >0.90 identified in the phylogenetic analyses were treated as c..., , # Network structure variation across scales offers clues to the macroevolutionary persistence of specialised mutualisms

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kx6](10.5061/dryad.3bk3j9kx6)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: 8sites_epicephala.nexus

**Description:** Nexus file containing the complete DNA sequence alignment generated by and used in this study for phylogenetic analysis in MrBayes (Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003), representing 241 individual Epicephala moth specimens (of which 240 specimens were newly collected and sequenced for this study). Data were Sanger-sequenced for three loci (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I, COI; nuclear arginine kinase, ArgK; nuclear elongation-factor 1-alpha, EF1-alpha). Each OTU (or “taxlabel”) in the alignment corresponds to an individual Epicephala specimen. The labeling system for the OTUs provides collection information about the specimens. For example, the DNA sequence name “ex_Glochidion_acumin...,