REANALYSIS OF OVIPOSITION AND DEVELOPMENT RATES IN THE PHYTOSEIIDAE USING A PHYLOGENETIC AUTOREGRESSIVE METHOD

Life history patterns are usually identified by comparisons of extant species. Because of inferences regarding phylogenetic constraints, com parative data are often not statistically independent. In order to rem ove phylogenetic patterns embedded in life history data completely, we adopted a phylogenetic autoregressive method to reanalyse a data set of the ovipositional and developmental rates of 45 Phytoseiidae specie s. We first calculated the phylogenetic correlation in relation to dif ferent taxonomic levels using Moran's I statistics. Significant and po sitive phylogenetic correlations were found at the subgenus and subfam ily levels. This indicates that some variation in both of these life-h istory traits could be accounted for by phylogeny. Phylogenetic associ ations, therefore, were removed by a phylogenetic autoregressive metho d. Using corrected data from this method, the specific components of t he ovipositional rate are positively correlated with the specific comp onents of the developmental rate. The method that we have used obtains the same conclusion as others but differs from the phylogenetic effec t in the way that it influences the relationship between comparative d ata. Because of no data reduction in the phylogenetic autoregressive m ethod, the specific components are more useful than the mean values de rived from the higher taxonomic nodes for testing ecological and evolu tionary hypotheses about life history patterns. (C) 1998 Chapman & Hal l Ltd.