Dissertation Research: Native Hawaiian Bees (Hylaeus): Phylogenetics and Pollen Usage

Cornell Univ - State: Awds Made Prior May 2010, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Bryan Danforth and Mr. Karl Magnacca of Cornell University for the study of native bees in Hawaii. The primitive, wasp-like bees in the genus Hylaeus are the only bees native to the Hawaiian Islands, and have a crucial role in perpetuating and regenerating native ecosystems by pollination of important trees and shrubs. Despite their remarkable radiation from a single ancestor into over 60 species - there are only 48 Hylaeus in North America - almost nothing is known about them. As a step toward a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of the bees in relation to their environment, the goal of this project is to reconstruct the relationships among species. Several genes from different regions will be sequenced, and shared changes in the sequence used to define pairs and groups of species. In this way, a tree will be built that reveals the process of diversification from the original colonist to the current fauna. By mapping the islands occupied by each species onto the tree, the history of dispersal among islands can also be determined; and because the islands are arrayed in a line from youngest to oldest, an estimate of the date of that first immigrant can be made. Like many insect groups in Hawaii, the native bees are a vital part of the ecosystem that have largely been overlooked. A quarter of the species have not been collected in eighty years or more; others are threatened by habitat destruction and invasive plants; the most abundant species at least through the 1930's is now virtually extinct. An understanding of evolutionary relationships is a basic building block in the study of biology, ecological significance, and conservation. It allows information from studies of one species to be inferred about its close relatives, and opens the door to more direct questions with immediate impact, such as the history of interaction between the bees and their food plants.