Maxi Polihronakis
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For my PhD dissertation,
I am working on a group of scarab beetles commonly known as
May beetles in the genus Phyllophaga. These beetles
are large, brownish in color, and can often be seen flying around
lights at night. I have begun work on the molecular systematics
of the fraterna species complex, a group with about
25-30 species found throughout the eastern half of the United
States. Characteristics of this group include wildly asymmetric,
convoluted, and complex male genitalic structures as well as
diverse, species-specific female genitalia. I am interested
in using a molecular phylogeny to study to the evolution of
the diverse genitalic morphologies, as well as test for correlations
between male and female genitalic characters. In the future
I would like to integrate behavior and functional morphology
into this research to investigate the role of post-copulatory
sexual selection on the speciation patterns of beetles within
this genus. |
