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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

firely evolution, signaling systems, fireflies

College

Life Sciences

Department

Biology

Abstract

The goal of this project was to expand and clarify the relationships between the various subfamilies of fireflies. Lampyridae (the scientific name for fireflies) is a family within the beetle order, Coleoptera, and include about 2000 species across the world. Lampyridae is currently recognized as having nine separate subfamilies, but the relationships between these groups are unclear. This project was meant to determine clear relationsips between these groups and further determine the location of key species, such as Pterotus obscuripennis, whose phylogenetic position has remained uncertain after many attempts to place it firmly within a specific subfamily. However, this project was modified and pursued in another direction, and the author was instead placed on another project to create a new phylogeny for Mecoptera. Mecoptera, or scorpionflies, are recognizable for having several physical features similar to those of a scorpion, hence their unusual name. This project was then designed to further expand the families within Mecoptera. The Whiting Lab published a phylogeny on Mecoptera and Siphonaptera several years ago and has since acquired many new specimens. Additionally, the technology of gene mapping has significantly expanded, allowing new genes to be added to the phylogeny for comparison and reevaluation of previous work. This new project seeks to use the past information concerning the genes 18S, 28S, EF-1a, and COII and expand it by adding the gene CAD.

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