Dr Juanita Rodriguez1

1CSIRO, Canberra, Australia

Biography:

Juanita Rodriguez is a research scientist at the Australian National Insect Collection. Her research focuses on the use of morphological and molecular data to study the systematics, diversification, evolution and historical biogeography of terrestrial arthropods. Most of her research has been dedicated to Hymenoptera, more specifically ants and spider wasps (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae). Recent projects include the use of long read sequencing and transcriptomics to study the evolution of venom in spider wasps.

She grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, where she obtained her B.Sc and M.Sc degrees at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. In 2014 she obtained her Ph.D. at Utah State University. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Auburn University between 2014-2016.

In August 2016 she joined the Australian National Insect Collection

Abstract:

The tribe Ageniellini in Australia currently comprises the genera Auplopus and Fabriogenia. These two genera are common in collections and potentially diverse, but they have not been comprehensively revised. DNA was extracted from forty-two specimens from the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) and sequenced using high-throughput short-read whole genome sequencing. Ultra-Conserved Element (UCE) and mitochondrial data were obtained from these sequences, and maximum likelihood phylogenies were constructed using IQ-TREE. A supermatrix of mitochondrial and UCE data was also analyzed with IQ-TREE to produce a maximum likelihood phylogeny. The UCE data were merged with an unpublished dataset of world Pompilidae that includes a comprehensive sampling within Ageniellini. Generic delimitation for Australian species was performed, and species delimitation was conducted for Australian Fabriogenia. The voucher specimens were compared with the available type specimens, and the potential number of new species was estimated.