Phylogeny, Biogeography and Evolution of Mimicry in Oedionychine Flea Beetles

该项目的重点是了解跳甲类跳甲的系统发育和拟态进化模式。这是一个由23个属组成的大类群，其系统发育关系尚不清楚。甲虫五花八门，五颜六色，在它们的范围内参与了无数的模仿复合体。PI打算利用外骨骼和雄性生殖器的传统特征以及内部特征、雌性生殖器、感受器和分子特征来重建这一群体的系统发育。由于这个类群分布在热带地区的三大洲，阐明生物地理模式将为理解模仿在多样性中可能发挥的作用提供一个基本框架。对这些数据的单独和联合分析，将为这种古老的甲虫组合的关联性、模仿性和进化的假设提供强有力的测试。

The project is focused on understanding the phylogeny and evolutionary patterns of mimicry in the oedionychinid flea beetles. This is a large group of 23 genera, with the phylogenetic relationships not understood. The beetles are diverse, colorful, and involved in numerous mimicry complexes throughout their range. The PIs intend to reconstruct the phylogeny of this group using traditional characters of exoskeleton and male genitalia, as well as internal features, female genitalia, sensilla, and molecular characters. Because this group is distributed among three continents in tropical areas, elucidating the biogeographic patterns will provide a basic framework for understanding the role mimicry may have played in diversification. Analysis of these data, separately and combined, will provide powerful tests of hypotheses of relatedness, mimicry, and the evolution of this ancient assemblage of beetles.