Phylogeny of Flea Beetles: Testing 3 Hypotheses of Relatedness Using 3 Different Data Sets: Larval and Adult Morphology and DNA Sequence Data

本研究将建立38个跳蚤甲虫超属群和5个galerucinae部落的系统发育（家谱），并使用一个综合的分类单元集和一个详尽的成虫和幼虫形态学特征集，以及来自线粒体、核和核糖体基因组的3个基因片段，来测试跳蚤甲虫和galerucinae之间关系的三个假设。这一系统发育也将用于检验跳跃行为进化、寄主植物选择进化、跳蚤甲虫的生物地理和地质年龄以及幼虫叶片摄食进化等具有普遍科学意义的假设。跳蚤甲虫（金蝇科：金蝇科）和它们的姐妹群，Galerucinae，是一个包含超过12000种的庞大群体；它们对农业也极具破坏性。跳蚤甲虫以在马铃薯、西兰花和葡萄等食用作物上制造“弹孔”而闻名。galerucines因对玉米和豆类造成数十亿美元的损失而臭名昭著。不幸的是，跳蚤甲虫的分类地位是如此混乱，它阻碍了适当的研究和害虫管理。蚤甲虫的500多个属被划分为38个超属族、亚族和科，但没有关于这些族和系列之间的分类或系统发育假设。缺乏值得信赖的系统发育对害虫管理尤其重要，因为在虫害管理中，农药应用或寻找生物防治剂的假设往往是根据分类位置做出的，如果这些假设不正确，往往会浪费资金。

This study will produce a phylogeny (family tree) of the 38 flea beetle supra-generic groups and 5 galerucine tribes, which will test three proposed hypotheses of relationships, between the flea beetles and the galerucinae using a comprehensive taxon set and an exhaustive character set from adult and larval morphology and 3 gene fragments from the mitochondrial, nuclear and ribosomal genomes. This phylogeny will also be used to test hypotheses of evolution of jumping behavior, evolution of host- plant choice, Biogeography and geologic age of the flea beetles, and evolution of larval leaf feeding which are of general scientific interest.The flea beetles (Chrysomelidae: Alticinae) together with their sister group, the Galerucinae, are a huge group containing over 12,000 species; they are also extremely damaging to agriculture. The flea beetles are renowned for making "shot holes" in table crops such as potato, broccoli and grapes. The galerucines are infamous for the multi-billion dollar damage to corn and beans. Unfortunately, the taxonomic status of the flea beetles is so confusing that it impedes proper research and pest management. Over 500 described genera of flea beetles are divided into 38 supra-generic tribes, sub-tribes and sections and there is no taxonomic or phylogenetic hypothesis of how these tribes and series are related to one another. This lack of a trust -worthy phylogeny is especially important to pest management, where assumptions about pesticide applications or search for biological control agents are often made based on taxonomic position and where money is often wasted if these assumptions are incorrect.