DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Winging It! Phylogeny and Evolution of the Helicopter Damselflies (Pseudostigmatidae: Odonata)

这项研究的重点是一群非常大的、独特的、濒临灭绝的昆虫，直升机豆娘。这些昆虫表现出独特的进食和飞行行为，并为豆娘（森林冠层居民）提供了独特的栖息地。这些特点导致了机翼在形式和支撑上的一些结构适应。直升机豆豆蝇的另外两个特征使其成为研究昆虫翅膀结构进化的合适群体：它们是当今现存的最原始的有翼昆虫群体之一（蜻蜓目）的成员，而且它们拥有昆虫谱系中最好的化石记录之一。这项研究还将集中于确定这种和相关豆娘群体之间的进化关系。这项研究的重点是一群熟悉的生物，豆娘，并将产生保护它们所需的基线数据。此外，本研究寻求多种来源的数据（来自活体和化石标本的DNA和形态学），以研究过去1亿年昆虫翅膀的进化。这些信息可以应用于生物力学领域，如昆虫翅膀建模和微型飞行器的设计。这项研究的结果将通过开发专为高中课堂使用的在线进化教程，同行评审的出版物，以及将图像数据存储在在线图像数据库MorphBank上，产生广泛的教育影响。

This research focuses on a group of very large, unique and endangered insects, the helicopter damselflies. These insects exhibit unique feeding and flight behaviors and have adopted a unique habitat for damselflies (forest canopy dweller). These characteristics have resulted in several structural adaptations to the wing in both form and support. Two other features make helicopter damselflies an appropriate group for studying the evolution of wing structures within insects: they are members of one of the most primitive winged groups of insects alive today (Odonata) and they have one of the best fossil records of any insect lineage. This research will also focus on determining evolutionary relationships within this and a related group of damselflies. This research focuses on a familiar group of organisms, damselflies, and will generate baseline data that are needed for their conservation. Further, this research seeks data from multiple sources (DNA and morphology from living and fossil specimens), in order to study insect wing evolution over the past 100 million years. This information has applications to the field of biomechanics, such as insect wing modeling and the design of micro air vehicles. Results from this research will have a broad educational impact via development of an online Tutorial On Evolution designed for use in the high school classroom, peer-reviewed publications, and by depositing image data on the on-line image database, MorphBank.