Louis F Nastasi Entomology Dissertation Supplemental Materials

This work contains supplemental materials for the doctoral dissertation of Louis Nastasi. The abstract for the dissertation is as follows:

Galls are novel plant structures which develop in response to manipulation by other organisms, usually insects, to provide nutrition and shelter. While galls themselves are fascinating and well- known examples of plant-insect interactions, the organisms that induce them are poorly understood with regard to their extant diversity, taxonomy, and phylogeny. My dissertation focuses on one lineage of gall-inducing insects, the gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Cynipidae sensu lato), a group of wasps which have transitioned from a parasitic biology to phytophagy through gall induction. While North America is a biodiversity hotspot for the group, their evolutionary history, diversity, and biology are poorly understood. To rectify these shortcomings, I provide a series of comprehensive studies investigating the present status of the North American cynipid fauna, revising the taxonomy of North American, and developing the most comprehensive phylogeny of Cynipoidea to. In the preface, the audience is introduced to gall wasps, and the following chapters are in-depth investigations of gall wasps relating to their taxonomy and phylogeny.
In Chapter 1, I catalog the North American gall wasp fauna including taxonomic history, known host associations, geographic distribution, and gall phenotypes. This catalogue forms the taxonomic basis for the following chapters. Chapter 2 then provides the first key to North American gall wasp genera in around 80 years. This key enables identification of all adult North American gall wasps to the tribe level and to the level of genus for all but Cynipini. This chapter also provides updated species lists, diagnoses, and other information necessary to further stabilize the treated taxa. Collectively, these two chapters produce a baseline understanding of the current status of non-Cynipini gall wasps in North America.
Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 involve revisionary taxonomic studies of the robust herb gall wasps (Aulacideini), a tribe of gall wasps associated with herbaceous plants. My fourth chapter applies integrative taxonomic methods to the group for the first time in revising a complex of supposed cryptic species, while my fifth chapter revises the entire North American fauna of the tribe. Through these two chapters, I describe 22 species and six genera new to science and establish renewed limits for previously known taxa, providing comprehensive sets of diagnostic morphological characters, DNA barcodes, and ecological associations that unlock the group for further study.
Chapter 5 presents a comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) for the superfamily Cynipoidea. This study, containing over 350 cynipoids, established robust phylogenetic relationships among major cynipoid lineages and enabled interpretations of transitions between major life histories. Using the phylogeny recovered in the sixth chapter, Chapter 6 presents a preliminary revision of the families of gall wasps to enable further robust circumscription of family-rank taxa.
Overall, my dissertation provides a series of essential resources for the North American gall wasp fauna, providing updated tools that will enable subsequent studies on the region’s rich diversity.