DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A Time Scale for Scales: Basal Phylogeny and Divergence Times in Coccoidea (Hemiptera: Insecta)

时间刻度：介壳虫总科（半翅目：昆虫纲）的基本系统发育和分歧时间介壳虫是农业和林业中相当重要的植物害虫，每年造成数十亿美元的损失。由于这个原因，物种的分类和鉴定是相当复杂和专业化的，但更大的谱系之间的关系仍然很少探索。有了这笔赠款，研究将扩大对介壳虫的基础家庭之间的进化关系，使用成年女性和男性的解剖结构以及DNA序列。 结果将允许对生物学（例如，植物宿主）知之甚少。 由于介壳虫在1.3亿至2000万年前的琥珀中是如此多样化，它们是研究食草昆虫如何相对于开花植物（被子植物）进化的模型组。将研究来自世界各地的琥珀中保存的鳞片，并分析现代物种的大型数据集中化石的解剖数据。 将在阿贡国家实验室的高级光子源扫描选定的琥珀标本，以可视化模糊的显微结构。 该项目将允许确定介壳虫家族在地质时期的分化时间，并评估它们的进化是否与开花植物的进化一致。 PI和co-PI积极参与非正式科学教育，资助的工作将被纳入其中，Co-PI为NSF赞助的科学研究指导计划设计了生物多样性课程的昆虫学课程，AMNH教育部正在准备制作网络材料，并将通过这个在线门户网站提供。PI在这个项目中指导两名高中生，研究琥珀。 Co-PI还将参与非正式的公共教育，包括在萨克勒教育实验室为初中和高中学生提供实践实验室体验。最后，本研究的一个产品将是一个在线交互式识别关键的合作PI？的研究网站。

A Time Scale for Scales: Basal Phylogeny and Divergence Times in Coccoidea (Hemiptera: Insecta) Scale insects are plant pests of considerable significance in agriculture and forestry, causing billions of dollars in damage annually. For this reason, the taxonomy and identification of species is quite sophisticated and specialized, but relationships among the larger lineages are still poorly explored. With this grant, research will be expanded on the evolutionary relationships among the basal families of scale insects, using anatomical structures of the adult females and males as well as DNA sequences. The results will allow informed predictions to be made about groups whose biology (e.g., plant hosts) is poorly known. Since scale insects are so diverse in ambers 130 to 20 million years old, they are a model group to examine how plant-feeding insects have evolved with respect to the flowering plants (angiosperms). Scales preserved in ambers from around the world will be studied, and the anatomical data from the fossils in a large data set with the modern species analyzed. Select amber specimens will be scanned at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, to visualize obscured microscopic structures. The project will allow to determine when the families of scale insects diverged in geological time, and assess if their evolution coincided with that of the flowering plants. The PI and co-PI are actively involved with informal science education, and the funded work will be incorporated into it. The Co-PI has designed Entomology sessions of the biodiversity course for the NSF-sponsored Science Research Mentoring Program with which the AMNH Education Department is preparing the production of web material, and will be available through this online portal. The PI mentors two high school students in this program, working on amber. The Co-PI will also be involved in informal public education, including hands-on laboratory experiences for middle and high school students in the Sackler Educational Laboratory. Lastly, a product of this research will be an online interactive identification key available on the co-PI?s research website.