Dissertation Research: Phylogenetic Relationships of the Eucharitidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea)

研究生约翰·赫拉蒂建议收集和研究 印度-太平洋黄蜂科的代表， 由寄生在蚂蚁身上的物种组成。 本集团 显示全球分布（虽然没有新的 新西兰）。 该项目将产生六个旧世界 族属的修订和分析 Oraseminae。 进化树将根据以下数据构建： 幼虫和成虫形态，然后与地理 分布和蚂蚁宿主偏好。 最后一步， 分析将表明黄蜂是否专门针对不同的 蚂蚁宿主，或在成为寄生虫后与蚂蚁联系在一起 蚂蚁捕食的不同昆虫种类的差异。 拟议的项目将增加关于 重要的全球性组织，从而打开研究， 他们的多样化和分布的历史。 一个令人信服 这项研究的另一个方面是对我们的更广泛的影响， 宿主-寄生虫共同进化的理解。

Graduate student John Heraty proposes to collect and study Indo-Pacific representatives of the wasp family Eucharitidae, composed of species that are parasitic on ants. The group displays a world-wide distribution (though is absent from New Zealand). The proposed project will result in six Old World generic revisions and an analysis of the genera of the tribe Oraseminae. Evolutionary trees will be constructed from data on larval and adult morphology, and then compared with geographic distributions and ant-host preferences. This final step in the analysis will suggest whether the wasps specialized on different ant hosts, or became associated with ants after being parasites on the different groups of insects on which the ants preyed. The proposed project will add critical new information on an important world-wide group, thereby opening up research into their history of diversification and distribution. A compelling aspect of the study is the wider implication for our understanding of host-parasite coevolution.