Abstract

The correlated evolution of the morphology of reproduction-related organs and biological aspects of insects is intriguing yet poorly understood. As one of the largest subfamilies of phytophagous beetles, Cerambycinae provides a unique opportunity to study this topic because of the wide range of host plants, oviposition strategies, and various forms of ovipositors of its members. Nevertheless, the evolutionary pathway of these traits is unexplored and no robust phylogenetic study of the subfamily has been conducted. In this study, we reconstructed a first multi-locus phylogeny of Cerambycinae representing a wide range of oviposition strategies, host plants, and ovipositor lengths. Ancestral state reconstruction analyses showed that the shortened ovipositor in Cerambycinae evolved at least four times independently and that the use of host plant has evolved from stressed hosts to dead or living hosts and from broad-leaved trees to conifers. The correlated evolution test revealed the correlation between ovipositor length and oviposition strategy. Our study elucidates for the first time the complex evolutionary history of the ovipositor, oviposition strategy, and host plant usage, and their correlations within Cerambycinae.