Dissertation: Phylogeny of Ephemeroptera:Evolution of the Subimago and Nymphal Gills With Implications on the Origin of Flight

杨百翰大学的迈克尔·怀廷博士和T·奥格登先生获得了一项资助，用于研究蚂蚁的关系和特定的适应。叶蝉目是一种相对较小的昆虫目，约有3000种，分布在世界各地。这些昆虫被许多人认为是第一批起飞的生物。尽管有这一有趣的特征，但这类昆虫之间以及其他昆虫类群之间的关系实际上是未知的。这项研究的三个目标是(1)确定相对于其他昆虫目的顺序位置，(2)在家族水平上估计蚂蚁的高级关系，(3)调查关于飞行适应的假说。这将通过以下方式完成：(A)从世界各地选择大量的蚂蚁和其他相关昆虫的样本进行形态和分子分析；(B)从每种昆虫的五个独立基因中产生信息丰富的形态和分子特征；(C)对这些数据进行严格的分析，以便建立可靠的关系估计(系谱)，可用于解决有关飞行适应的问题。例如，这一结果也可能有助于飞钓的运动，因为水生的可能蝇幼虫是河流系统中主要的鲑鱼食物。此外，蚂蚁是水质最重要的指标之一。这项研究的结果可用于改进项目设计和执行。最后，这些信息将有助于就生物多样性和保护作出更好和更知情的决定。对蚂蚁关系的了解不仅对科学很重要，而且还可以应用于其他一些令人关注的领域。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Michael Whiting and Mr. T. Ogden at Brigham Young University to study the relationships and specific adaptations of mayflies. The Ephemeroptera (mayflies) is a relatively small insect order of about 3000 species distributed throughout the world. These insects are considered by many to be the first organisms to have taken flight. Despite this interesting characteristic, relationships among this group and between other insect groups are virtually unknown. The three goals of this research are to (1) determine ordinal position with respect to the other insect orders, (2) estimate higher-level relationships of mayflies at the familial level, and (3) investigate hypotheses concerning adaptation of flight. This will be accomplished by: (a) Selecting numerous examples of mayfly and other related insects from throughout the world for morphological and molecular analysis; (b) Generating informative morphological and molecular characters from five independent genes in each these insects; (c) Subjecting these data to a rigorous analyses in order to establish a robust estimate of relationships (genealogies), which can be used to address questions concerning the adaptation of flight.The genealogical pattern produced through this study could be used for a variety of other purposes. For example, the results may also contribute to the sport of fly fishing, as mayfly larvae, which are aquatic, are the major trout food in river systems . In addition mayflies are one of the most important indicators of water quality. Results from this study could be used to improve project design and execution. Finally, this information will assist to make better and more informed decisions concerning biological diversity and conservation. Knowledge of the relationships of mayflies is important not only to science but also may be applied to a number of other areas of concern.