Systematics of Paronellinae Börner, 1913 (Collembola: Entomobryomorpha: Paronellidae)

Abstract

Current knowledge about taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships within Collembola is meager. Among the extant families, Paronellidae (Collembola: Entomobryomorpha) is of particular interest for this work and comprises two subfamilies: Cyphoderinae (12 genera, 128 species) and Paronellinae (23 genera, 385 species). The latter is the main focus of this research proposal. Few studies have dealt with the systematics of Paronellinae, and some hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships among some genera of Paronellinae were proposed mainly with morphological datasets, and some authors have disputed the monophyly of the subfamily. Nonetheless, these studies were conducted using few characters and without an explicit cladistic analysis. After the recent research conducted by different scientists working with phylogeny of Entomobryoidea, the interest for the phylogenetic relationships within Paronellinae has grown, particularly regarding standardization methods to selection of morphological characters, molecular data protocols, and use of phylogenetic methods to evaluate hypotheses of relationships among the lineages comprises in this taxon. Nonetheless, no research program has been conducted to date aiming at a more comprehensive comparative morphological and molecular analysis to explore the evolution of Paronellinae. One of the most significant challenges to achieve such goals relies on the difficulty of sampling taxa representative of the diversity of this subfamily as a whole, which has a cosmopolitan distribution. Much of the diversity embodied by the Neotropical taxa is available for this study already. The challenge now is to match the sampling for the other biogeographic regions, with particular interest on the Ethiopian, sub-Saharan African and Australasian faunas. The present proposal aims at a four-month internship at the Entomology Collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, under the supervision of Dr. Brian Brown. This collection is an important repository of hexapods from the Oriental, Ethiopian, Australian and Neotropical regions. The internship will allow the morphological study and inclusion of representative species of the following genera in the morphological data-matrix being assembled for the phylogenetic study of Paronellinae: Akabosia, Metacoelura, Pseudosalina, Yosiia, Pseudoparonellides, Paronana (Cremastocephalini); Idiomerus, Parachaetoceras (Callyntrurini); Tricorypha, Troglopedetes (Paronellini). Some ethanol-preserved samples will also be loaned so as to conduct non-destructive DNA extractions and subsequent molecular research with various additional taxa needed for this research. (AU)