Sand Live Oak, Quercus geminata

Sand live oak is found throughout northern Florida, more broadly west to Louisiana, and northeast to NorthCarolina. It is found in beach dunes, backdunes, sandhills, coastal areas, and inland areas with deep sandy soils.While this plant forms trees farther inland, it is commonly reduced to shrubs and sub-shrubs because of the extreme environmental conditions of the coast. The acorns of this plant are a valuable food source for wildlife. Sand live oak is available also in commercial nurseries and is often used as a landscape plant.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sg182 This publication is derived from information in SGEB-75/SG156, Dune Restoration and Enhancement for the Florida Panhandle, by Debbie Miller, Mack Thetford, Christina Verlinde, Gabriel Campbell, and Ashlynn Smith. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sg156.

Divergent host-plant use promotes reproductive isolation among cynipid gall wasp populations

Ecological speciation occurs when reproductive isolation evolves as a consequence of divergent natural selection among environments. A direct prediction of this process is that ecologically divergent pairs of populations will exhibit greater reproductive isolation than ecologically similar pairs of populations. By comparing allopatric populations of the cynipid gall wasp Belonocnema treatae infesting Quercus virginiana and Quercus geminata , we tested the role that divergent host use plays in generating ecological divergence and sexual isolation. We found differences in body size and gall structure associated with divergent host use, but no difference in neutral genetic divergence between populations on the same or different host plant. We observed significant assortative mating between populations from alternative host plants but not between allopatric populations on the same host plant. Thus, we provide evidence that divergent host use promotes speciation among gall wasp populations.