Identification of two lineages of host-associated eriophyoid mites predisposed to different levels of host diversification

Herbivorous arthropods can diversify as a consequence of evolutionary changes in response to their plant hosts. Current patterns of host association of herbivores are likely to reflect a long evolutionary history of herbivore-plant co-evolution. Here, we used molecular phylogenetics to track the evolutionary history of host shifts and diversification of 66 eriophyoid mites (Acari, Eriophyoidea), and linked past patterns of evolutionary diversification to more recent patterns of divergence by tracking population genetic variation in 13 of the eriophyoid mite species feeding on different gymnosperm hosts. This allowed us to explore the relationship between a past history of diversification and the current potential of mites to undergo host range shifts. We found that population-level diversity across gymnosperm hosts as measured by 28S rRNA markers was greater in species from the mite clade that had radiated across evolutionary time to utilize a variety of hosts including angiosperms, compared to species from the clade that has remained restricted to ancestral gymnosperm hosts. Species from the radiated clade exhibited higher variation in host use. Lineages of mites that have in the past been able to radiate and adapt to diverse plants may therefore be predisposed to continue their expansion on new hosts, although additional clades need to be tested.