Evolutionary assembly of the milkweed fauna: cytochrome oxidase I and the age of Tetraopes beetles.
By Farrell, B.D.
Full PDF
Farrell, B.D. 2001. Evolutionary assembly of the milkweed fauna: cytochrome oxidase I and the age of
Tetraopes beetles. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 18(3): 467–478.
Abstract
The insects that feed on the related plant families Apocynaceae and Asclepiadaceae (here collectively termed “milkweeds”) comprise a “component community” of highly specialized, distinctive lineages of species that frequently sequester toxic cardiac glycosides from their host plants for defense against predators and are thus often aposematic, advertising their consequent unpalatability.