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

资金将用于调查在新大陆热带发现的杀死蜜蜂的苍蝇物种之间的关系。这些鲜为人知的苍蝇的未成熟阶段是内部寄生虫，最终会杀死它们的蜜蜂宿主。目前已知的这种苍蝇大约有30种，但据估计，实际存在的物种超过200种，其中许多物种尚未被描述，仍有待收集。除了使用已有的标本外，还将前往中美洲和南美洲，以获取更多物种的标本进行分析。来自核和线粒体DNA序列的分子特征，以及成年苍蝇的外部结构，将被用来假设关系。由此产生的系统发育树将被用来检查寄主选择和寄主攻击行为在苍蝇物种中的分布。这项研究将由博物馆的形态学家和大学的分子生物学家(史密斯-加州州立大学贝克斯菲尔德分校)合作进行，他们已经在积极研究这些苍蝇(布朗-洛杉矶县自然历史博物馆)，为研究人员和他们的机构提供了新的机会。这项研究将有助于我们了解寄主-寄生虫的相互作用，这是生物防治害虫的关键。我们将让本科生参与我们的项目，为他们提供宝贵的实验室和实地经验，这在CSUB是罕见的，而CSUB是一所没有研究生水平研究的机构。最后，我们将帮助了解世界上一个鲜为人知的生物多样性受到威胁的部分。

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.