Phylogenomics and historical biogeography of colletid bees

• Grant number: 23/04048-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2024
• End date: February 16, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Andrade Botelho de Almeida
• Grantee: Felipe Vieira de Freitas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/12303-2 - Resolving phylogenetic uncertainty and divergence times in colletid bees (Hymenoptera, Colletidae), BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 2010 decade the use of NGS data has become more popular for studies on biodiversity, bees and its closely related groups have been frequent target of these studies. Thanks to that, the understanding about the relationships among the different lineages of bees has grown considerably. Following the grown understanding about the phylogeny of bees, more advances, like historical biogeography were possible. However, some of the lineages of bees remain understudied regarding the use of NGS data for phylogenetics. Because of this deficit, here we propose a phylogenetic study of the family Colletidae, frequently referred to as cellophane bees, using low coverage genomes and ultraconserved elements to be obtained using NGS. This study would focus on the subfamilies a) Diphaglossinae, which does not have any phylogenetic hypothesis including a dense sampling of its diversity and has an interesting distribution through the Neotropical region; b) Neopasiphaeinae, the subfamilies of Colletidae with the highest number of genera recognized, which has part of their diversity associated with South America and part with Australia; e c) Scrapterinae, the only colletid subfamily occurring exclusively in Africa and that is associated with the Greater Cape Floristic Region. With this study, we expect to improve the understanding of Colletid's phylogeny and then, improve the generic and subgeneric classification of these subfamilies and make inferences about their historical biogeography. Regarding historical biogeography, is expected 1) bring advances to the understanding of the faunal exchange between South America and Australia, which happened multiple times in Colletidae; 2) understand how and when the faunal exchange among the Americas happened in Diphaglossinae; and 3) bring advances to understanding on how the Andes influenced the assembling of the colletid fauna of South America; and 4) have a better understand of the macroevolutive processes influencing the formation of the great diversity of Scrapter species in southern Africa. (AU)