Many Hymenoptera, with their painful stings and noxious chemical defenses,
exhibit bright aposematic warning color patterns and are the most frequently
mimicked group of organisms. Such aposematic color patterns are found in parasitic
wasps of the Neotropical Compsobracon group (Braconidae). Many members of this
group exhibit color patterns similar to several thousand other species of Braconidae,
Ichneumonidae, sawflies, assassin bugs, flies, moths, and beetles. One hypothesis
to explain this observation is that the members of the complex and their colors are
generated by multiple cospeciation events resulting in the constituent genera having
isomorphic phylogenetic trees. An alternative hypothesis is that the organisms have
colonized existing color pattern niches independently and do not have topologically
similar phylogenetic histories. In order to test the hypothesis that these patterns
are the result of cospeciation events they will be described and mapped onto a
phylogenetic tree. If clades are found to have isomorphic topologies; evidence will
suggest cospeciation. However, if clades are not found to have similar topologies,
evidence will suggest independent colonization of color pattern niches. / Graduation date: 2006
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33311 |
| Date | 14 November 2005 |
| Creators | Leathers, Jason Wayne |
| Contributors | Brower, Andrew V.Z., Judd, Darlene D. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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