Browsing by Subject "cybertaxonomy"
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Item Advances in diapriid (Hymenoptera: diapriidae) systematics, with contributions to cybertaxonomy and the analysis of rRNA sequence data(2009-05-15) Yoder, Matthew JonDiapriids (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae) are small parasitic wasps. Though found throughout the world they are relatively unknown. A framework for advancing diapriid systematics is developed by introducing a new web-based application/database capable of storing a broad range of systematic data, and the first molecular phylogeny specifically focused at examining intrafamilial relationships. In addition to these efforts, a description of a new taxon is provided. Several advantages of digital description, including linking descriptions to an ontology of morphological terms, are highlighted. The functionality of the database is further illustrated in the production of a catalog of diapriid host associations. The hosts database currently holds over 450 association records, for over 500 named taxa (parasitoids and hosts), and over 180 references. Diapriids are found to be primarily endoparasitoids of Diptera emerging from the host pupa. Phylogenetic inference for a molecular dataset of 28S and 18S rRNA sequence data, derived from a diverse selection of diapriids, is accomplished with a new suite of tools developed for handling complex rRNA datasets. Several parsimony-based methodologies, including an alignment-free method of analyzing multiple sequences, are reviewed and applied using the new software tools. Diapriid phylogenetic relationships are shown to be broadly congruent with existing morphology-based classifications. Methods for analyzing typically excluded sequence data are shown to recover phylogenetic signal that would otherwise be lost and the alignment-free method performed remarkably well in this regard. Empirically, phylogenetic approaches that incorporate structural data were not notably different than those that did not.Item Web-Integrated Taxonomy and Systematics of the Parasitic Wasp Family Signiphoridae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea)(2014-12-09) Dal Molin, AnamariaThis work focuses on the taxonomy and systematics of parasitic wasps of the family Signiphoridae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea), a relatively small family of chalcidoid wasps, with 79 described valid species in 4 genera: Signiphora Ashmead, Clytina Erd?s, Chartocerus Motschulsky and Thysanus Walker. A phylogenetic analysis of the internal relationships in Signiphoridae, a discussion of its supra-specific classification based on DNA sequences of the 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA and COI genes, and taxonomic studies on the genera Clytina, Thysanus and Chartocerus are presented. In the phylogenetic analyses, all genera except Clytina were recovered as monophyletic. The classification into subfamilies was not supported. Out of the four currently recognized species groups in Signiphora, only the Signiphora flavopalliata species group was supported. The taxonomic work was conducted using advanced digital imaging, content management systems, having in sight the online delivery of taxonomic information. The evolution of changes in the taxonomic workflow and dissemination of results are reviewed and discussed in light of current bioinformatics. The species of Thysanus and Clytina are revised and redescribed, including documentation of type material. Four new species of Thysanus and one of Clytina are described. The taxonomy of Chartocerus is reviewed, including redescriptions of 25 out of 33 currently valid species, most based on type or topotypical material.