Seed-beetles in the age of the molecule: recent advances on systematics and host-plant association patterns.
Résumé
Our understanding of the evolution of host-plant associations in phytophagous insects has greatly benefited from the recent and continuous development of molecular phylogenetics studies. It was also the case for seed-beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae), as numerous studies based on molecular phylogenetics were published on this group in the last ten years. In this paper, we have used a supertree approach to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of nearly 200 species of seed-beetles. The resulting phylogenetic framework was used to investigate their systematics and host-plant association patterns. This supertree provides an interesting overview of the current state of knowledge in bruchine phylogenetic relationships and also underlines the likely paraphyletic condition of numerous bruchine groups. Regarding the evolution of host-plant associations, our analyses recover a clear trend toward conservatism in host-plant use at distinct taxonomic levels.