Date of Award:
12-2026
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
Alan Savitzky
Committee
John T. Longino
Committee
Michael Branstetter
Abstract
Where species live and why they occur in certain places are questions that help scientists understand how biodiversity is maintained and how it evolves. This knowledge is especially important for conservation because it identifies which species and habitats are most at risk and guides efforts to protect them. The Brazilian Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse tropical savanna and home to thousands of unique plants and animals. However, much of its natural vegetation has been converted to agriculture and to other human uses, threatening many species before they are even discovered. Although insects make up most of the Cerrado’s biodiversity and play essential ecological roles, they remain poorly studied and are often overlooked in conservation planning. This research focused on velvet ants, a diverse group of aculeate wasps found throughout the Cerrado. By sampling insects at 40 locations across the biome, nearly 20,000 specimens were collected, representing about 350 species. Using both traditional field surveys and modern DNA sequencing, I investigated how velvet ant communities vary across landscapes, how species relate to one another, and how environmental conditions influence their occurrence and distribution. The results show that different Cerrado habitats support distinct velvet ant communities and that environmental variation plays a major role in shaping biodiversity patterns. The study also revealed previously unknown diversity, including evidence of species that may be new to science. By examining both present-day ecological patterns and their evolutionary history, this research provides new insights into how biodiversity has evolved in the Cerrado over time. Overall, this dissertation improves our understanding of a neglected component of South America’s biota and highlights the importance of conserving a variety of habitats across the Cerrado. The findings clarify how biodiversity is generated and maintained in tropical ecosystems and provide valuable information for future conservation planning in one of the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Vieira, Cecília Rodrigues, "Biogeography, Biodiversity, and Conservation of Mutillids (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) From the Neotropical Savanna" (2026). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present. 951.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd2023/951
Included in
Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .