Phylogeny, Biogeography and Evolution of Mimicry in Oedionychine Flea Beetles

该项目的重点是了解俄狄onychind蚤甲虫的系统发育和进化模式。这是一个由23个属组成的大群，其系统发育关系尚不清楚。甲虫种类繁多，色彩鲜艳，在它们的活动范围内参与了许多模仿复合体。pi打算利用外骨骼和男性生殖器的传统特征，以及内部特征、女性生殖器、感受器和分子特征来重建这一群体的系统发育。由于这一类群分布在热带地区的三大洲，阐明生物地理模式将为理解模仿在多样化中可能发挥的作用提供一个基本框架。对这些数据的分析，无论是单独的还是综合的，都将为这些古老的甲虫组合的亲缘关系、模仿和进化等假设提供有力的检验。

The project is focused on understanding the phylogeny and evolutionary patterns of mimicry in the oedionychinid flea beetles. This is a large group of 23 genera, with the phylogenetic relationships not understood. The beetles are diverse, colorful, and involved in numerous mimicry complexes throughout their range. The PIs intend to reconstruct the phylogeny of this group using traditional characters of exoskeleton and male genitalia, as well as internal features, female genitalia, sensilla, and molecular characters. Because this group is distributed among three continents in tropical areas, elucidating the biogeographic patterns will provide a basic framework for understanding the role mimicry may have played in diversification. Analysis of these data, separately and combined, will provide powerful tests of hypotheses of relatedness, mimicry, and the evolution of this ancient assemblage of beetles.