Data from: Ancient host shifts followed by host conservatism in a group of ant parasitoids

While ant colonies serve as host to a diverse array of myrmecophiles, few parasitoids are able to exploit this vast resource. A notable exception is the wasp family Eucharitidae, which is the only family of insects known to exclusively parasitize ants. Worldwide, approximately 700 Eucharitidae species attack five subfamilies across the ant phylogeny. Our goal is to uncover the pattern of eucharitid diversification, including timing of key evolutionary events, biogeographic patterns and potential cophylogeny with ant hosts. We present the most comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Eucharitidae to date, including 44 of the 53 genera and fossil-calibrated estimates of divergence dates. Eucharitidae arose approximately 50 Ma after their hosts, during the time when the major ant lineages were already established and diversifying. We incorporate host association data to test for congruence between eucharitid and ant phylogenies and find that their evolutionary histories are more similar than expected at random. After a series of initial host shifts, clades within Eucharitidae maintained their host affinity. Even after multiple dispersal events to the New World and extensive speciation within biogeographic regions, eucharitids remain parasitic on the same ant subfamilies as their Old World relatives, suggesting host conservatism despite access to a diverse novel ant fauna.尽管蚁群是多种蚁栖生物（myrmecophiles）的宿主类群，但极少有寄生蜂能够利用这一庞大的生态资源。一个显著的例外是缨蜂科（Eucharitidae），它是目前已知唯一专门寄生蚂蚁的昆虫类群。全球范围内，约有700种缨蜂科昆虫会寄生于蚂蚁系统发育框架中的5个亚科。本研究旨在揭示缨蜂科的多样化演化模式，包括关键演化事件的发生时序、生物地理分布格局，以及与宿主蚂蚁的潜在共系统发育关系。我们构建了迄今为止最为全面的缨蜂科分子系统发育树，涵盖了该科53个属中的44个属，并通过化石校准估算了类群的分化时间。研究结果显示，缨蜂科的起源时间比其宿主蚂蚁晚约5000万年，彼时主要的蚂蚁类群业已形成并开始辐射演化。我们整合宿主关联数据，检验了缨蜂科与蚂蚁的系统发育一致性，发现二者的演化历史相较于随机预期更为相似。在经历一系列初始宿主转移事件后，缨蜂科内部的各演化支始终维持其宿主偏好。即便多次扩散至新大陆，并在各生物地理区域内发生了广泛的物种形成事件，缨蜂仍仅寄生于与其旧世界类群相同的蚂蚁亚科，这表明尽管接触到了多样的全新蚁类群，缨蜂仍表现出显著的宿主保守性。