Dissertation Research: Native Hawaiian Bees (Hylaeus): Phylogenetics and Pollen Usage

康奈尔大学的布赖恩·丹福思博士和卡尔·马格纳卡先生获得了一笔赠款，用于研究夏威夷的本土蜜蜂。 原始的黄蜂样蜜蜂是夏威夷群岛唯一的本土蜜蜂，通过为重要的树木和灌木授粉，在维持和再生本土生态系统方面发挥着至关重要的作用。 尽管它们从一个单一的祖先辐射到60多个物种-在北美只有48个Hylaeus-几乎对它们一无所知。 作为全面了解蜜蜂进化与环境关系的一步，该项目的目标是重建物种之间的关系。 将对来自不同地区的几个基因进行测序，并将序列中的共同变化用于定义物种对和物种组。 通过这种方式，将建立一个树，揭示从最初的殖民者到当前动物群的多样化过程。 通过将每个物种所占据的岛屿映射到树上，也可以确定岛屿之间的传播历史;因为岛屿从最年轻到最古老排列成一条线，所以可以估计第一次移民的日期。像夏威夷的许多昆虫群体一样，本土蜜蜂是生态系统的重要组成部分，但在很大程度上被忽视了。 四分之一的物种在80年或更长时间内没有被收集;其他物种受到栖息地破坏和入侵植物的威胁;至少在20世纪30年代最丰富的物种现在几乎灭绝了。 对进化关系的理解是生物学、生态学意义和保护研究的基本组成部分。 它允许从一个物种的研究中推断出其近亲的信息，并为更直接的问题打开了大门，这些问题具有直接的影响，例如蜜蜂与其食物植物之间的相互作用历史。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Bryan Danforth and Mr. Karl Magnacca of Cornell University for the study of native bees in Hawaii. The primitive, wasp-like bees in the genus Hylaeus are the only bees native to the Hawaiian Islands, and have a crucial role in perpetuating and regenerating native ecosystems by pollination of important trees and shrubs. Despite their remarkable radiation from a single ancestor into over 60 species - there are only 48 Hylaeus in North America - almost nothing is known about them. As a step toward a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of the bees in relation to their environment, the goal of this project is to reconstruct the relationships among species. Several genes from different regions will be sequenced, and shared changes in the sequence used to define pairs and groups of species. In this way, a tree will be built that reveals the process of diversification from the original colonist to the current fauna. By mapping the islands occupied by each species onto the tree, the history of dispersal among islands can also be determined; and because the islands are arrayed in a line from youngest to oldest, an estimate of the date of that first immigrant can be made. Like many insect groups in Hawaii, the native bees are a vital part of the ecosystem that have largely been overlooked. A quarter of the species have not been collected in eighty years or more; others are threatened by habitat destruction and invasive plants; the most abundant species at least through the 1930's is now virtually extinct. An understanding of evolutionary relationships is a basic building block in the study of biology, ecological significance, and conservation. It allows information from studies of one species to be inferred about its close relatives, and opens the door to more direct questions with immediate impact, such as the history of interaction between the bees and their food plants.