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Published June 2022 | public
Journal Article

Parallel evolutionary paths of rove beetle myrmecophiles: replaying a deep-time tape of life

Abstract

The rise of the ants over the past ~100 million years has reshaped the biosphere, presenting ecological challenges for many organisms, but also opportunities. No insect group has been so adept at exploiting niches inside ant colonies as the rove beetles (Staphylinidae) — a global clade of>64,000 predominantly free-living predators from which numerous socially parasitic 'myrmecophile' lineages have emerged. Myrmecophilous staphylinids are specialized for colony life through changes in behavior, chemistry, anatomy, and life history that are often strikingly convergent, and hence potentially adaptive for this symbiotic way of life. Here, we examine how the interplay between ecological pressures and molecular, cellular, and neurobiological mechanisms shape the evolutionary trajectories of symbiotic lineages in this ancient, convergent system.

Additional Information

© 2022 Elsevier. Received 17 February 2022, Revised 27 February 2022, Accepted 2 March 2022, Available online 14 March 2022. We thank members of the Parker lab for the feedback on this article, production of which was supported by a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to JMW and a US National Science Foundation CAREER award (2047472) to JP. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr. David H. Kistner, global authority on social insect symbionts, who passed away on March 10th, 2021. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
December 22, 2023