 |
|
 • Home/Overview • Checklists • Database • Fieldwork • Phylogeography • Photo Gallery • Species pages • Endangered beetles • Personnel • Informatics • Collaborators • Collection • Bibliography • Support the project • Beetle links • Entomology home  |
California Beetle Project > Home/Overview
Research Interests Comparative Phylogeography of California beetles Currently, I am involved in the California Beetle Project, a NSF-funded project lead by Dr. M. Caterino. My major responsibility is conducting the comparative phylogeographic study. To do this, I am using an approximately 800bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene to investigate the phylogeographic relationships of several beetle species throughout southern California. The focal area is the California Floristic Province (the southern Transverse Range), an area with great biological diversity. More specifically, I am interested in examining the phylogeography of three major groups of beetles: a coastal group, a litter-inhabiting group and a small group comprised of some very conspicuous creatures. The coastal group consists of five species and will be sampled across the coast of southern California and at the channel islands. The litter-inhabiting group consists of four species and will be sampled in at least 12 localities in southern California. Finally, the last group consists of eye-catching beetles such as Nicrophorus nigrita (Silphidae) and Phloeodes diabolicus (Zopheridae) and will also be sampled in at least 12 localities. This study is the first large scale insect comparative phylogeographic study and the results will be of great importance for biogeography, land management and conservation. Systematics and evolution of staphylinid beetles I am primarily interested in documenting biodiversity by revising taxa, describing new species and reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of lineages. I specialize on the beetle family Staphylinidae. Staphylinid beetles are one of the greatest successes of evolution. With more than 40,000 species, they are found virtually everywhere and have a plethora of forms and evolutionary novelties. I am particularly interested in the subtribe Xanthopygina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae: Xanthopygina), which is currently comprised of 36 genera, and mainly distributed in the New World tropics. I have revised the genera Nordus, Elmas and Philothalpus (with J. S. Ashe), and I plan to continue the phylogenetic revision of the subtribe using morphological and molecular characters. I am currently revising the genera Isanopus and Nausicotus, and I plan to revise the genera Xanthopygus, Oligotergus, Phanolinus in the near future. Secondly, I am interested in the evolution of coloration in Staphylinidae. The evolution of coloration in insects has been primarily studied among populations of the same species or among sympatric individuals of the same species. However, fewer studies have investigated the interspecific evolution of color patterns. These studies have primarily focused on butterflies and Drosophila, although there are a few investigations for other orders such as true bugs and phasmatodeans. Despite the fact that beetles exhibit dramatic color variations there are few studies focusing on the evolution of the coloration in a phylogenetic context. In Xanthopygina, 1) I am interested in how many times each color pattern has evolved within each genus, 2) what are the evolutionary advantages of different color morphs, and 3) the affect of these color patterns on the behavior of the beetles. Thus far, I have studied the evolution of coloration in Nordus and would like to compare these results with other xanthopygine phylogenies when they become available. Third, since I moved to California, I became interested in the local Staphylinidae fauna and I am very interested in describing new species and identifying new state records. Biogeography The biogeography of Aegean archipelagos and Latin America is another subject of great interest. Tenebrionid beetles are a great tool for studying evolution on islands and examining speciation of insects, due to their low mobility. My work was focused on the tenebrionid beetle genus Dendarus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Dendarini), a speciose genus with Mediterranean distribution. My current research focuses on reconstructing Latin American biogeography using several published phylogenies of staphylinid beetles and employing published new algorithms. Paleoentomology I am interested in describing fossil incests and investigating how these discoveries affect the phylogenetic relationships of extanct taxa. Michael Engel and I recently described a new fossil genus of Dermaptera from the early Cretaceus, the genus Kotejalabis.  |