Native hosts present in current locations for up to 10,000 yrs. Several species in plant family Sapindaceae introduced within the last 50-100 yrs. The soapberry bug has colonized these introduced hosts and established populations on them. B. Evolutionary divergence 1. Indicates that proboscis length has diverged evolutionarily to match the thicknes of host fruits.
Proboscis lengths on introduced hosts.
Picture of soapberry bug on different hosts. C. Historical records of proboscis lengths. Because there are good samples of soapberry bugs in entomological collections from different regions over the last 80 years, it is possible to determine whether there is historical evidence of change in proboscis length. This change in consistent with the greater proboscis lengths on the introduced host species in current samples. Populations in Florida a. Exhibit a strong trend of decreased in proboscis length over the period 1900-1980.