Acronym: PPMATS.
Collaborators: Gontran Sonet (JEMU-RBINS), Carl Vangestel (JEMU-RBINS), Jean-Luc Boevé (RBINS).
Year: 2021.
Summary: Here, we aim to improve the phylogeny of sawfly species of Athalia (Hymenopterra, Tenthredinidae, Athaliinae), map host plants of the larvae on the phylogeny, and reconstruct ancestral host plants relationships. This will also verify whether Athalia scutellariae is the sister taxon of all other Athalia species, as suggested previously. A further objective is to consider insect-plant relationships at a larger scale, by exploring whether and how host shifts are driven by plant secondary metabolites in Athalia as well as in the tenthredinids. Athalia is the sister group of all other tenthredinids, and a phylogeny of this family was studied.