(1st Place) Using phylogenomics to identify introgression among Anastrepha fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae) fruit flies include several recurrently invading pest species of economic importance in the USA (e.g., Anastrepha ludens, Anastrepha fraterculus). Unfortunately, interspecific relationships among species in Anastrepha are historically “messy” and difficult to delimit, making species identification for specimens intercepted in the continental USA incredibly challenging. In fact, although 22 Anastrepha species groups have been delimited using morphological traits, recent molecular data has shown that only ~5 of these species groups are well-supported, monophyletic clades. Both ancient and contemporary patterns of introgression may, in part, explain the blurry relationships found among Anastrepha species. To look for patterns of introgression in Anastrepha, we used Highly Multiplexed Amplicon-based Phylogenomics (HiMAP) to obtain phylogenomic data for 500+ Anastrepha specimens at 1,000 nuclear loci. I will present progress, to date, on elucidating patterns of introgression among and within currently recognized Anastrepha species groups. These data will help to clarify the complex evolutionary dynamics in this group of economically important invasive pests.