The chalcidoid megaradiation

Description

Chalcidoidea are one of the species-rich groups of parasitoid waps. They show a remarkable diversity in outer appearance and life history and can be found often in high abundance in nearly all terrestrial ecosystems around the world. The evolution of the Chalcidoidea, however, is still unsuffficiently understood. Also, the current classification is not based on natural groups and needs to be revised. In an NSF-funded joint project, we aim at reconstructing the phylogeny of Chalcidoidea with phylogenomic approaches in order to gain a better understanding of the evolution and diversification of the group as well as to propose a new classification.

This project is done in collaboration with John Heraty (UC Riverside), James B. Woolley (Texas A&M University), Matt Yoder (University of Illinois), Lars Krogmann (State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart) and an international consortium of Chalcidoidea experts.

Location