Taxonomy and phylogeny of Idarnes walker 1843 and study of its relationships within Sycophaginae (Chalcidoidea)

Abstract

Sycophaginae is the most diverse and abundant subfamily of wasps associated to Ficus in the Neotropical region. There are two genera belonging to this subfamily in the neotropics: Anidarnes Boucek 1993 e Idarnes Walker 1843. The candidate's PhD project intends to review Idarnes and analyze the phylogenetic relationships in the genus. The candidate intends to visit the CBGP-France to (1) review materials in Jean-Yves Rasplus' collection (greatest collection of fig wasps to date), mainly from Costa Rica, Mexico and French Guiana, (2) create a phylogenetic hypothesis to Idarnes based on morphology and molecular data and (3) analyze the phylogenetic relationships within Sycophaginae, including morphological and molecular characters, in order to improve the resolution of recent phylogenies. The phylogenetic relationships inferred using parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian methods will be discussed in light of morphological observations and host taxonomy and relationships. (AU)