| Popis: |
Entomopathogenic fungi are ubiquitous inhabitants of forests worldwide, remarkably in tropical regions. Among these fungi, one of the most abundant and diverse is the genus Ophiocordyceps. These fungi are particularly diverse and more commonly found parasitizing coleopteran, lepidopteran, hymenopteran and hemipteran insects. However, other insect orders are also parasitized by these fungi, for example the blattodeans (termites and cockroaches). Despite their ubiquity in nearly all environments insects occur, blattodeans are rarely found infected by filamentous fungi and thus, their ecology and evolutionary history remains obscure. In this study, we propose a new species of Ophiocordyceps infecting the social cockroaches Salganea esakii and S. taiwanensis, based on 16 years of collections and field observations, especially the Ryukyu Archipelago. We found a high degree of genetic similarity between specimens from different islands, infecting two Salganea species and that this relationship is ancient, likely not originated from a recent host jump. Furthermore, we found that Ophiocordyceps lineages infecting cockroaches evolved around the same time, at least twice, one from beetles and the other from termites. We have also investigated the evolutionary relationships between Ophiocordyceps and termites and present the phylogenetic placement of O. blattae for the first time. |
