PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF CORBICULTE BEES (HYMENOPTERA, APIDAE, APINAE) BASED ON MORPHOMETRIC DATA

• Grant number: 09/15584-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2010
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal researcher: Fernando Barbosa Noll
• Grantee: Zioneth Judith Garcia Galeano
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Corbiculates bees, Apini, are subdivided in four subtribes, Apina, Meliponina, Euglossina and Bombina, a monophyletic clade of Apinae (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Five phylogenetic hypotheses support Apini as monophyletic, even though the internal relationships are still controversial. Morphological and behavioral hypotheses suggest a single origin for the eusociality, with Apina and Meliponina as sister taxa, while molecular hypotheses suggest at least two independent origins. Morphometry has been widely used in taxonomic problems, but continuous or quantitative characters are rarely used in phylogenetic analysis. This study intends to study the evolutionary history of corbiculates bees based on morphometric data as a support for the lack of taxonomic information contemplated the Brazilian Pollinators Initiative. Ten body measurements and geometric variables analyzed for wings will be used as characters to reflect the shape and size of the species in a phylogenetic analysis. Morfometric data will be used in a cladistic matrix, associated with other data from the literatura, for a parsimony analysis using the TNT 1.1 - WHS software edition, which allows analysis without discretization of continuous characters. Additionally, features that could mean increasing the efficiency of pollination will be tracked on the tree selected.