RPG: Molecular Phylogenetics of Bumble Bees and Related Groups

这项研究有两个主要目标：1)从最近对线粒体rRNA序列的简约分析中推断，研究大黄蜂和无刺蜜蜂（蜜蜂科的两个部落）之间姐妹群体关系的可靠性；2)通过构建行为多样的大黄蜂亚属（Fervidobombus）物种的系统发育，为建立一个长期的研究项目提供系统发育基础，重点研究原始社会性快速部落Bombini（大黄蜂）的社会特征进化。这种嵌套系统发育调查的结果将为大黄蜂提供适当的外群知识，这是理解大黄蜂内部关系的必要条件。解决Fervidobombus内部的关系将为理解发生在该亚属内的从相对简单到更复杂的社会行为的许多行为转变提供基础。最终，这种跨学科的方法，通过使用系统发生学来测试行为转变的假设，将系统分类学和动物行为学结合起来，将增加进化生物学这两个重要学科之间的理解和合作。这项研究还将增加对野生和农作物传粉昆虫重要群体生物学的了解。//

There are two primary goals of the research proposed in this planning grant: 1) to investigate the reliability of the sister group relationship between the bumble bees and stingless bees (two tribes of the family Apidae) inferred from a recent parsimony analysis of mitochondrial rRNA sequences; and 2) to provide the phylogenetic foundation for developing a long term research program focusing on the evolution of social traits within the primitively eusocial apid tribe Bombini (bumble bees) by constructing a phylogeny of the species within the behaviorally diverse bumble bee subgenus Fervidobombus. The results of this nested phylogenetic investigation will provide knowledge of the appropriate outgroup to the bumble bees, a necessity for understanding relationships within the bumble bees. Resolution of the relationships within Fervidobombus will provide the foundation for understanding many of the behavioral transitions from relatively simple to more complex social behavior that have occurred within the subgenus. Ultimately, this interdisciplinary approach, which integrates systematics and animal behavior by using phylogenies to test hypotheses of behavioral transformation, will increase understanding and collaboration between these two important disciplines of evolutionary biology. The study will also increase understanding of the biology of an important group of insect pollinators of wild and crop plants. //