A Brief Summary January 11, 2012

A little while ago, Dr. Cryan gave me a report that he and Julie Urban wrote, titled "Entomologically famous, evolutionarily unexplored: The first phylogeny of the lanternfly Fulgoridae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea)." The report shows the results of the first study ever of the phylogeny of the Fulgoridae lanternfly. The study was based on DNA nucleotide sequence data from five genetic loci. The report begins by explaining the uniqueness of the fulgorid species included the brilliant colors, the production of cuticular waxes, and the enlongated head function. The primary goals of the study were to reconstruct the phylogeny of the major lineages in the Fulgoridae species, test the existing classification of the Fulgoridae, and examine the evolution of the enlongated fulgorid head. Some of the tests that they do include taxon sampling, DNA extractions and PCR amplification, and sequence alignment and phylogenic analysis. In the end, the study was able to test the classification of Fulgoridae, examine the evolution of the Fulgorid head morphology, and explore the distribution patters of the fulgoridae. More research will be needed to gain a greater understanding of the fulgoridae, but this study was a great way to test old hypotheses and get a jump start on research into the fulgoridae species. When I first read it, it was all very scientific and confusing, but as I've been working with Dr. Cryan, more of this report is making sense.