Combined Molecular and Morphological Phylogenetics of Bee-Killing Flies, Genus Melaloncha (Insecta: Diptera: Phoridae)

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Funding will be used to investigate the relationships of species of bee-killing flies found in the New World tropics. The immature stages of these little-known flies are internal parasites that eventually kill their bee hosts. Approximately 30 species of these flies are known, but there are estimated to be over 200 species actually in existence, many of which are undescribed and still to be collected. In addition to using specimens already in hand, travel will take place to Central and South America to obtain specimens of further species for analysis. Molecular characters from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences will be used, as well as the external structure of adult flies, to hypothesize relationships. The resulting phylogenetic trees will be used to examine host choice and the distribution of host-attacking behavior among the fly species. This research will be conducted by a collaboration of a museum-based morphologist who is already actively working on these flies (Brown- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County) with a university-based, molecular biologist (Smith- California State University, Bakersfield), allowing new opportunities for both researchers and their institutions. This research will be useful for its contribution to our knowledge of host-parasite interactions, which are the key to biological control of insect pests. We will be involving undergraduate students in our project, giving them valuable laboratory and field experience that is rare at CSUB, an institution that does not have graduate-level research. Finally, we will be helping to understand a little-known part of the world's threatened biodiversity.