Cutting-Edge Evolution of Insects: Factors Governing Ecological Divergence of Natural Populations Assessed Using Molecular and Genetic Markers

Dear Colleagues,

Natural insect populations are always likely to diverge ecologically under the influences of selection, competition for scarce resources (both intra- and interspecific, including intra- and interclonal in predominantly asexual insects), and genetic drift. This may arise by allopatric, parapatric, or sympatric means. In the case of the last, even though individuals are contiguous within a population, divergence can arise by chromosomal means—for example, complementary and non-complementary regions of the genome where genetic exchange can or cannot occur; fusions and fissions, especially translocations; rearrangements such as inversion polymorphisms brought about by transposon-induced “hot-spots”; mutation of sex determining genes causing asexual populations, as in aphids; possibly mutualistic symbionts leading to unique specialised host insect populations; sexual selection; and polyploidy—to name only the principal mechanisms. There are undoubtedly others, some as-yet unknown. All such mechanisms are liable to produce mutant individuals that can no longer interbreed with the natal population, with divergence perhaps reinforced by chemical means, such as kairomones, pheromones, and cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), immune responses, and in some species (e.g., cicadas), auditory mechanisms related directly to behaviour. In the present collection of overview articles, various international experts in the field of molecular ecology and genetics explore how insects have diverged and continue to do so at the molecular-genetic level, sometimes rapidly, to become new ecological entities and thereby new players in the great ongoing panoply of evolution on Earth.

Prof. Hugh Loxdale
Prof. Dr. Astrid Groot
Dr. David G. Biron
Guest Editors

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