Dissertation Research: Phylogeny and Evolution of Subsocial Behavior in the New World Treehopper Subfamily Membracinae (Homoptera: Membracidae)

论文研究：新世界角蝉亚科Membracinae（同翅目：Membracidae）的系统发育和亚社会行为的进化

• 批准号: 0104893
• 负责人: Bryan Danforth
• 金额: $ 0.94万
• 依托单位: Cornell Univ - State: AWDS MADE PRIOR MAY 2010
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-07-01 至 2003-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0104893&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Phylogeny; Evolution; Subsocial

0104893Danforth and Lin Insects in the New World treehopper subfamily Membracinae (5 tribes, 38 genera and about 447 species) show a range of social behavior from (1) solitary individuals, to (2) nymphal or adult aggregations, to (3) highly developed maternal care with parent/offspring communication via substrate-borne vibrations. The behavioral variation in membracine treehoppers provides an excellent opportunity to study the evolution of subsocial behavior in insects. However, our current knowledge on the evolution of subsocial behavior in this group is limited because of an incomplete picture of their phylogenetic relationships. We don't know how many times maternal care has evolved, whether maternal care gives rise to solitary behavior, or exactly how complex forms of maternal care involving communication and signalling have evolved. In order to more fully understand the historical patterns of social evolution in membracine treehoppers, a phylogenetic study of this group will be conducted using both morphological and molecular (DNA sequences from nuclear and mitochondrial genes) data by graduate student Chung-Ping Lin under the guidance of Dr. Bryan Danforth at Cornell University. New collections will be made from South America to augment existing samples and museum holdings. The results of phylogenetic analyses will provide a historical framework to reconstruct the likely direction of behavioral character changes among membracine treehoppers. This information will then be used to identify the origins of subsocial behavior and to trace the development of subsocial behavior over evolutionary time. The result of this study will contribute not only to our understanding of subsocial behavior in this fascinating group of insects but to knowledge of evolution of sociality in general.

新大陆树跳亚科昆虫（5族，38属，约447种）表现出一系列的社会行为，从（1）独居个体，到（2）若虫或成虫聚集，再到（3）高度发达的母性关怀，通过基质传播的振动与父母/后代交流。这种行为变异为研究昆虫亚社会行为的进化提供了极好的机会。然而，我们目前的知识在这组亚社会行为的演变是有限的，因为他们的系统发育关系的不完整的图片。我们不知道母性关怀已经进化了多少次，母性关怀是否会引起孤独行为，或者涉及沟通和信号的母性关怀的复杂形式到底是如何进化的。为了更全面地了解Membracine Treehoppers社会进化的历史模式，该群体的系统发育研究将由康奈尔大学研究生Chung-Ping Lin在Bryan Danforth博士的指导下使用形态学和分子（来自核和线粒体基因的DNA序列）数据进行。将从南美洲收集新的藏品，以增加现有的样品和博物馆藏品。系统发育分析的结果将提供一个历史框架，以重建可能的方向之间的行为特征的变化membracine树跳。这些信息将被用来识别亚社会行为的起源，并追踪亚社会行为在进化过程中的发展。这项研究的结果不仅有助于我们理解这一迷人昆虫群体的亚社会行为，而且有助于了解一般社会性的进化。