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Microgastrinae
Under the instruction of James B. Whitfield, in collaboration with Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs

Since the Fall of 2011 I have been working with Dr. James B. Whitfield on the systematics of the Microgastrinae (Braconidae). This gigantic subfamily of lepidopteran parasitoids, comprising an estimated 5,000-10,000 species, is perhaps the largest subfamily of parasitoid wasps. My tenative Ph.D. project is to assemble a large scale data set (8-10 genes for 500-600 taxa) for the subfamily Microgastrinae in order to resolve the phylogeny. Efforts thus far have been hindered by lack of taxon sampling and very little appropriate character data. By resolving these issues we hope to be able to elucidate the phylogeny of this incredibly diverse group. For my M.S. project, I will be revising the Neotropical Xanthomicrogaster. This genus currently contains four described species. We have obtained many different Xanthomicrogaster from the Área de Conservación Guanacaste, Costa Rica. I plan to describe all of these species, including compiling host-plant data and investigating the sexually dimorphic coloration seen in many species. I will also prepare a key for identification of the Neotropical Xanthomicrogaster, as well as a phylogeny of the genus. These efforts will continue to build on our knowledge of the incredible diversity of Neotropical Microgastrinae.

Investigating Outgroup Choice through TRASSO
Original project with Sophie Cardinal and Bryan N. Danforth at Cornell University; continued under the instruction of James B. Whitfield

TRASSO (Topology and Root Ambiguity: Stochastic Subsampling of Outgroups) is an approach my collaborators and I developed in order to answer the question of what effect the outgroups chosen have on the resultant root of the phylogeny. Due to systematic biases within our phylogeny reconstruction methods, including a tendency for long-branch attractions, the outgroups chosen (and in fact any taxon chosen to be included) can have a negative impact on the reconstruction of the phylogeny. In order to estimate the effect that the outgroups have, we developed an approach that can be used to randomly subsample from a pool of outgroups and then compare and analyze the resultant topologies. By specifying a level of resolution (i.e., looking at family level relationships instead of simply each terminal), broad patterns can be examined. Currently, the program is complete in an alpha version. I am working to assemble a couple more test datasets, produce results, and assemble the program into a systematist-friendly form. This project will be available as a open-source software package with documentation when it is completed. This idea was originally presented in my Senior Honors Thesis for Cornell University.

Identifying the Sister Group to the Bees: A phylogeny of Apoidea
Under the instruction of Sophie Cardinal and Bryan N. Danforth at Cornell University

The bees are a monophyletic group of ~20,000 species in seven families. For a very long time, the apoid wasps, currently comprising the four families Ampulicidae, Heterogynaidae, Crabronidae, and Sphecidae, were considered to be a monophyletic group that was the sister group to the bees. Over time, however, the group was broken up into four families, with Crabronidae being considered the sister group to the bees. Through a four gene molecualr phylogeny, we investigated, with a very wide sample of apoid wasps, which groups might be the sister group to the bees. We found that the family Crabronidae was paraphyletic, with the subfamilies Philanthinae and possibly Pemphredoninae as sister group to the bees. For more information, please read our upcoming paper.
Publication: Debevec, A.H., Cardinal, S., and Danforth, B.N. 2012. Identifying the sister group to the bees: a molecular phylogeny of Aculeata with an emphasis on superfamily Apoidea. Zoologica Scripta, 41, 527-535.
Presentation: Debevec, A.H., Cardinal, S., and Danforth, B.N. 2012. Identifying the sister group to the bees: a molecular phylogeny of Aculeata with an emphasis on superfamily Apoidea. 1st Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology, Ottawa, Canada, 9 July.
Andrew Henry Debevec, M.S. Student in Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
320 Morrill Hall, 505 S Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 // Phone: 217-333-2170
Contact: debevec2 (at) illinois (dot) edu
Photo credit here.