Comparative phylogeography of a pitcher plant community

The Sarracenia alata pitcher plant and inquiline species comprise an ecological community. These inquilines span the continuum in their ecological association with the host pitcher plant, from species that contain little-to-no interaction with the plant to species that are completely dependent on the plant for their entire life cycle. We collected genome-wide sequence data from a set of arthropods that are ecologically-associated with the plant to estimate comparative phylogeographic patterns among the species. Obligate members of the pitcher plant community display concordant phylogeographic patterns, suggesting their ecological dependence has manifested itself into a shared evolutionary history. The Sarracenia alata pitcher plant system should be considered an evolutionary community, where multiple members sharing strong ecological interactions also display concordant phylogeographic structure.