Diachasma alloeum

The parasitic wasp Diachasma alloeum (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Opiinae), native to North America, attacks flies in the Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) sibling species complex (Forbes et al. 2010). Wasps use olfactory cues to locate host fruit as the site for mating and oviposition of eggs into fly larvae (Forbes et al. 2009). The wasp larva consumes its fly host and overwinters in the fly puparium. The adult wasp emerges the following summer (Forbes et al. 2009).

Evidence suggests that D. alloeum is undergoing ecological speciation via sequential divergence (Forbes et al. 2009; Hood et al. 2015); ecological speciation at one trophic level (the fly trophic level) appears to be inducing a similar speciation event at the adjacent trophic level (the parasitoid trophic level). The wasps show genetic, behavioral and physiological differences that reduce gene flow between host forms attacking different fly taxa. The D. alloeum genome will allow for investigation of questions relating to the generation of biodiversity and the cascading effects of speciation processes.

Citations
Forbes, A.A., Powell, T.H.Q., Stelinski, L.L., Smith, J.J., Feder, J.L. 2009. Sequential sympatric speciation across trophic levels. Science 323:776-779.
Forbes, A.A., Hood, G.R., Feder, J.L. 2010. Geographic ranges and host breadths of parasitoid wasps associated with the Rhagoletis pomonella (Diptera: Tephritidae) species complex. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 103:908-915.
Hood, G.R., Forbes, A.A., Powell, T.H.Q., Egan, S.P., Hamerlinck, G., Smith, J.J., Feder, J.L. 2015. Sequential divergence and the multiplicative origin of community diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 112:E5980-5989.