Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Biology

Committee Chair(s)

James P. Pitts

Committee

James P. Pitts

Committee

Carol D. von Dohlen

Committee

James H. Cane

Committee

James A. MacMahon

Committee

Paul G. Wolf

Committee

Barbara J. Bentz

Abstract

Velvet ants are solitary wasps that are excellent candidates as model organisms for studying evolutionary phenomena like mimicry and biogeography. They can also be used in conservation studies because of their local abundance. Their abundance, coupled with parasitic lifestyle on native pollinators, suggests they will be economically important as native pollinators are implemented more widely. Velvet ants, however, are rarely studied and their research potential is drastically hindered by lack of phylogenetic and taxonomic data and lack of interest in the scientific community. In this dissertation, I sought to overcome the hindrances to mutillid research with a holistic systematic research model. By reconstructing the phylogeny using molecular methods and correcting taxonomy based on the phylogenetic reconstructions, I was able to overcome the barriers to velvet ant research while concurrently presenting broadly interesting hypotheses. I applied this model to multiple hierarchical levels within the most widely studied velvet ant genus, Dasymutilla, and its allies. My results reveal the utility of velvet ants for studying biogeography and mimicry. I specifically determined that velvet ants dispersed between North and South America prior to the Great American Biotic Interchange and members of the genus Dasymutilla form the world’s largest known Müllerian mimicry complex. Taxonomic problems in Dasymutilla and their allies are tackled in the remaining sections of the dissertation. Overall, 32 species were treated taxonomically. Seven new sex associations were discovered, 22 species were recognized as synonyms of previously known species, and nine new species were described. In each taxonomic treatment, hypotheses concerning biogeography, mimicry, and host selection were discussed briefly. This dissertation permits study of the species included therein and promotes new studies in multiple facets by future collaborators.

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This work made publicly available electronically on May 10, 2012.

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