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We provide the first description and analysis of species-rich communities of Fagaceae host plants, cynipid gall inducers and Hymenopteran parasitoids from two sites in western Sichuan, China. We use quantified interaction data to test the hypothesis that metabolically intimate cynipid-Fagaceae interactions are more specialised, resulting in more modular networks and stronger signatures of turnover than nestedness for beta diversity, than associations between parasitoids and Fagaceae. Rearing of nearly 27,000 cynipid gall specimens from 22 host plant species in Castanea, Castanopsis, Lithocarpus and Quercus (sections Cerris, Cyclobalanopsis, Ilex and Quercus) yielded 168 morphologically distinct cynipid gall morphotypes, and 3800 parasitoids in 67 morphospecies. The Sichuan parasitoid assemblage is similar in composition to cynipid-centred communities in the Western Palearctic and Nearctic. All of our predictions were confirmed. We discuss our findings in light of the processes thought to structure tritrophic interactions centred on gall inducing insect herbivores.

Co-evolutionary interactions between insect herbivores and their host plants underlie much contemporary biodiversity and are vital to assembly of natural ecosystems. Assemblages of galls on oaks induced by Cynipini wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) occur across much of the Northern Hemisphere, their diversity peaking in the Nearctic and on white oaks (Quercus section Quercus). However, the evolutionary history of the clade has been debated with respect to geographic origins, direction and timings of dispersal events, and shifts in host plant associations. We examined these questions using a global-scale, 6-gene phylogeny of 430 Cynipini species and a dataset of their associated host plants encompassing all eight sections within Quercus plus five Fagaceae genera. Likelihood-based ancestral state reconstructions demonstrate a Nearctic origin of the Cynipini followed by repeated colonisations of the Palearctic via both westwards and eastwards dispersal. These inferences are robust to bias in taxon sampling across continents and the inclusion of Protobalandricus as the sister lineage to Cynipini sensu stricto. Likewise, the association with white oaks is probably ancestral and has been retained by many Cynipini lineages. However, host shifts to other sections within Quercus and related Fagaceae genera are widely distributed across the cynipid phylogeny. They are associated with both global-scale range shifts and within-bioregion exploitation of alternative hosts, and their frequency typically correlates with host-plant relatedness. These findings highlight the evolutionary success of cynipids on white oak hosts and the connectedness of continental assemblages of gall wasps over evolutionary time.

Revealing processes that structure species interactions is central to understanding community assembly and dynamics. Species interact via their phenotypes, but identifying and quantifying the traits that structure species-specific interactions (links) can be challenging. Where these traits show phylogenetic signal, however, link properties are predictable using models that incorporate phylogenies in place of trait data. We analysed variation in link richness, frequency, and identity in a multi-site dataset of interactions between host oak cynipid galls and parasitoid natural enemies, using a Bayesian mixed modelling framework allowing concurrent fitting of terms for phylogenies of both trophic levels. In both link incidence (presence/absence) and link frequency datasets, we identified strong signatures of cophylogeny (related parasitoids attack related host galls) and patterns independent of either phylogeny. Our results are robust to simulations of substantially reduced sample completeness, and are consistent with the structuring of trophic interactions by a combination of phylogenetically conserved and convergently evolving traits at both trophic levels. We discuss our results in light of phenotypic traits thought to structure gall-parasitoid interactions and wider applications of this approach, including inference of underlying community assembly processes and prediction of economically important trophic interactions.

Conservationists often assume that connection with and caring about nature's well-being is strongly linked to ecological knowledge. Existing evidence on the link between ecological knowledge and psychological nature connection is mixed, geographically limited to countries in the Global North, and does not scrutinise potential differences in determinants of ecological knowledge and nature connection. We investigate the relationship between psychological nature connection and ecological knowledge of local bird species, and assess their associations with potential drivers, including access to, contact with, and reliance on nature and socio-demographic characteristics. Our study is carried among a novel participant population of colonist farmers living along a major deforestation frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. Our study context has high conservation relevance and provides an ideal setting to assess the extent to which conservation psychology's insights from the Global North hold true elsewhere. Tropical farm-forest frontiers suffer from intense habitat and biodiversity loss, and farmers with migrant origins are important yet rarely studied conservation stakeholders. Importantly, farmers' experiences of nature are likely to vary considerably due to the wide range of socio-demographic, economic, geographical and cultural diversity. Interviewees scored highly on two indices of nature connection, but scores were higher among older people and those with greater contact with nature. Bird identification knowledge was generally low to moderate, and higher among men and younger people. Species more frequently recognised were regionally common, larger-bodied or associated with non-forest habitats. Ecological knowledge of birds and nature connection were not correlated, and they did not have any predictors in common. Our results indicate that colonist farmers are capable of forming strong connections with nature, even if they rarely possess detailed knowledge of local forest bi

Conservationists often assume that connection with and caring about nature's well-being is strongly linked to ecological knowledge. Existing evidence on the link between ecological knowledge and psychological nature connection is mixed, geographically limited to countries in the Global North, and does not scrutinise potential differences in determinants of ecological knowledge and nature connection. We investigate the relationship between psychological nature connection and ecological knowledge of local bird species, and assess their associations with potential drivers, including access to, contact with, and reliance on nature and socio-demographic characteristics. Our study is carried among a novel participant population of colonist farmers living along a major deforestation frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. Our study context has high conservation relevance and provides an ideal setting to assess the extent to which conservation psychology's insights from the Global North hold true elsewhere. Tropical farm-forest frontiers suffer from intense habitat and biodiversity loss, and farmers with migrant origins are important yet rarely studied conservation stakeholders. Importantly, farmers' experiences of nature are likely to vary considerably due to the wide range of socio-demographic, economic, geographical and cultural diversity. Interviewees scored highly on two indices of nature connection, but scores were higher among older people and those with greater contact with nature. Bird identification knowledge was generally low to moderate, and higher among men and younger people. Species more frequently recognised were regionally common, larger-bodied or associated with non-forest habitats. Ecological knowledge of birds and nature connection were not correlated, and they did not have any predictors in common. Our results indicate that colonist farmers are capable of forming strong connections with nature, even if they rarely possess detailed knowledge of local forest bi

A new species of inquiline, Lithosaphonecrus edurus Fang, Melika, and Tang, new species (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini) is described from Emeishan, Sichuan Province, China. Lithosaphonecrus edurus is associated with an as yet undetermined cynipid gall on Lithocarpus cleistocarpus var. cleistocarpus and var. omeiensis, L. hancei and L. megalophyllus (Fagaceae). Description, diagnosis, phenology, and host association for the new species are given. The new species is supported by morphological and molecular data.