RPG: Molecular Phylogenetics of Bumble Bees and Related Groups

这项计划拨款中提出的研究有两个主要目标：1)根据最近对线粒体rRNA序列的简约分析，调查大黄蜂和无刺蜜蜂(蜜蜂科的两个部落)之间姐妹群关系的可靠性；2)通过构建行为多样化的熊蜂亚属的物种系统发育图，为制定一个长期的研究计划提供系统发育的基础，该研究计划专注于原始的社会性蜜蜂部落Bombini(熊蜂)内的社会特征的进化。这种嵌套的系统发育调查的结果将为大黄蜂提供适当的外群知识，这对于理解大黄蜂之间的关系是必要的。这些关系的解决将为理解亚属内发生的从相对简单的社会行为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，将系统学和动物行为结合在一起，将增加这两个重要进化生物学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中一类重要的昆虫传粉者生物学的了解。//

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. //