Phylogenetic relationships among the microgastroid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae): combined analysis of 16S and 28S rDNA genes and morphological data

Relationships among the microgastroid complex of braconid wasps were investigated using sequence data from the 16S mitochondrial rDNA and 28S (D2 expansion region) nuclear rDNA genes, as well as morphological data. Parsimony analysis of these gene fragments, both separately and combined, indicated that Neoneurus (Neoneurinae) and Ichneutes (Ichneutinae) were no more closely related to the microgastroids than were a range of helconoid taxa. Combined parsimony analysis of the microgastroids indicated the relationships ((Cardiochilinae + Microgastrinae) + Miracinae) + Cheloninae, with Adeliinae falling inside the Cheloninae. Bootstrap proportions for each of these nodes were greater than 70%. Character reweighting (sensu Farris), using the rescaled consistency index, also recovered these relationships. Mapping of lifestyle traits onto this relatively well supported phylogeny indicated that solitary endoparasitism is ancestral for the microgastroids, with a single origin for egg-larval endoparasitism in the Cheloninae + Adeliinae. Mapping of the radiation of the microgastroids into lepidopteran hosts was less clear, due to the specialized biology of the most basal microgastroid clade, the Cheloninae + Adeliinae. Our data are consistent with attack of concealed lepidopteran hosts as the plesiomorphic lifestyle, at least for the Miracinae + Cardiochilinae + Microgastrinae, with radiation into more exposed hosts in the Cardiochilinae + Microgastrinae