Ms Olivia Portmann1, Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries1,2

1School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, 2South Australian Museum, Adelaide, Australia

Biography:

Olivia is an honours student and member of the Invertebrate Systematics and Biodiversity lab at the University of Adelaide. She has been studying the diversity and systematics of Paraphylax, a genus of parasitoid wasps from the family Ichneumonidae.

Abstract:

Phygadeuontinae is a subfamily of parasitoid wasps belonging to the highly diverse family Ichneumonidae. Despite its high diversity, Ichneumonidae is vastly understudied within Australia, with no active taxonomists currently working on the family in the country. Several undescribed species of Phygadeuontinae were collected through the citizen science project Insect Investigators, with additional specimens also likely being held within museum collections across the country. This honours project aims to build foundational knowledge regarding the taxonomy and systematics of the subfamily in Australia through a combination of DNA barcoding and morphological evaluation, with a focus on Paraphylax; a genus that is currently represented in Australia by four species described by Ian Gauld in 1984. In this talk, initial results of the diversity of the genus and progress towards species descriptions – three of which will involve collaborating with school students who assisted in the collection of material – will be presented.