Figure 1.
Study selection (PRISMA) flow diagram for our systematic review.
Details on identification and selection of diagnostic PCR studies that surveyed for Arsenophonus, Cardinium, Hamiltonella, Spiroplasma, and Wolbachia.
Table 1.
Proportions of ants and lepidopterans testing positive for heritable symbionts in this study.
Figure 2.
Frequencies of Wolbachia across arthropod orders.
Proportions of infected species for all orders with n>10 species surveyed for Arsenophonus (A), Cardinium (C), Hamiltonella (H), Spiroplasma (S), and/or Wolbachia (W). “−” symbols indicate cases where data were not illustrated due to sample sizes of less than 10 surveyed species. Numbers of surveyed species are indicated below each respective bar. Data used for this figure were generated with diagnostic PCR surveys and are presented in Table S5. The phylogeny was drawn from information on the Tree of Life Website (tolweb.org). Only those orders with at least two symbionts meeting the above criteria are illustrated.
Figure 3.
Frequencies of Wolbachia across arthropod families.
Proportions of infected species for all families with n>10 species surveyed for Arsenophonus (A), Cardinium (C), Hamiltonella (H), Spiroplasma (S), and/or Wolbachia (W). “−” symbols indicate cases where results were not illustrated due to sample sizes of less than 10 surveyed species. Families of butterflies and moths were heavily sampled in this study and are highlighted in blue. Infection frequencies within the ant family Formicidae are highlighted in red. Names of arthropod orders are listed in capital letters above the data for their respective families. Numbers of surveyed species are indicated above each respective bar. Data used for this figure were generated with diagnostic PCR and are presented in Table S5. The phylogeny was drawn from information on the Tree of Life Website (tolweb.org). Only those families with at least two symbionts meeting the above criteria are illustrated.
Figure 4.
16S rRNA phylogeny of known heritable symbionts and microbes from ants.
Maximum phylogeny showing relatedness between ant associates and known maternally transmitted bacteria, thus illustrating the range of candidate heritable symbionts across the ants. Lineages of heritable symbionts are labeled and color-coded to indicate the presence of ant-associates. Color strip circles are used to indicate bacterial taxonomy (inner circle) and ant-association (outer circle). For ease of viewing, several clades on the original phylogeny were collapsed (i.e. those without heritable symbionts). The full tree is presented in Figure S1. Note that lifestyle heterogeneity within Spiroplasma and Arsenophonus lineages means that identified ant-associates are not certain to be heritable. Also note that the two “possible” symbionts of ants (a Staphylococcus sp. and a Bacillus sp.) were both detected in hemolymph and in eggs laid by queens, suggesting heritability.
Figure 5.
16S rRNA phylogeny of Spiroplasma from ants, lepidopterans, and other hosts.
Maximum likelihood phylogeny illustrating relatedness between ant associates and various Spiroplasma symbionts. The inner-most color strip illustrates known lifestyle, with gut associates being presented in light gray, pathogens in dark gray, and heritable bacteria in black. In the outer strip, the phenotype of male-killing is illustrated. Microbes are named after their hosts. Those from ants are in bold and italics; those from lepidopterans are in bold font; and those reported from Polyrhachis in this study are indicated with an asterisk. Non-Spiroplasma clades are collapsed for brevity. Bootstrap values greater than 60 are indicated above their respective nodes.
Table 2.
The diversity of Wolbachia strains from single insect hosts as inferred through sequencing of wsp libraries.
Table 3.
Prevalence, ranges of infected hosts, and correlates of symbiont prevalence as inferred from our systematic review.