ABSTRACTS for 93rd Annual Meeting Pacific Branch Entomological Society of America Bahia Resort Hotel San Diego, California March 29-April 1, 2009 Compiled according to presentation number in the program, with paper presentations (0-117) followed by poster presentations (1-38). No changes to spelling or grammar from the original abstracts were made. 1 PAPER PRESENTATIONS 0S. INTRODUCTION: ENTOMOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF ―ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES‖ Shawn A. Steffan Washington State University, Department of Entomology, Pullman, WA 99164 Charles Darwin first published ―On the Origin of Species‖ in 1859, introducing what is arguably the single most important organizational concept in the biological sciences. For 150 years, his theory of evolution by natural selection has been largely corroborated, with much evidence deriving from entomological circles. In celebration of the sesquicentennial of Darwin‘s groundbreaking work, young entomologists will be presenting elements of their research, emphasizing how their work contributes to the refinement of evolutionary theory. 1S. THE EVOLUTION OF FLIGHTLESSNESS IN CAVE AND ALPINE HAWAIIAN MOTHS Matthew J. Medeiros Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720 Although the ability to fly confers benefits to most insects, some taxa have become secondarily flightless. Insect flightlessness may be more likely to evolve in specific environments than in others, including caves and alpine areas, but these predictions have never been tested in a way that controls for phylogeny: If flightlessness evolves only once in a group, followed by dispersal to similar habitats, then correlations between habitat type and flightlessness are spurious. This presentation focuses on two genera of Hawaiian moths, both of which were presumed to include multiple flightless taxa: Schrankia, with both cave- and surface-dwelling species, and Thyrocopa, with species occurring in alpine and below-alpine areas. This work has sought to determine whether flightless species or populations within each genus are sister to one another or not. For Schrankia, only one species, S. howarthi, has invaded caves on two islands, Maui and Hawaii. Cave-adapted adults are not consistently flightless but instead are polymorphic for flight ability. Although the new species appears well suited to underground living, some individuals were found living above ground as well. These individuals, which are capable of flight, suggest that this normally cave-limited species is able to colonize other, geographically separated caves via above-ground dispersal. In this group, it is currently difficult to determine whether caves are correlated with flightlessness, though currently, selection may be favoring the reduction of flight ability. 2 In Thyrocopa, two independent alpine invasions and losses of flight have occurred. One flightless species lives on the summit of Haleakala on Maui, while the other lives near the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii Island. These two flightless, jumping ―grasshopper moths‖ are more closely related to other low-elevation Thyrocopa species from their respective islands than they are to each other. Cold temperatures, high winds, and/or a lack of predation may be responsible ecological factors for the loss of flight in these alpine-living species. Loss of flight ability has evolved in a short period of geologic time. 2S. ―ON THE INHABITANTS OF OCEANIC ISLANDS‖: FOUNDER EVENTS INFLUENCE DIVERSIFICATION IN A HOST-SPECIALIZED LINEAGE Kari Roesch Goodman, Stephen C. Welter & George K. Roderick University of California at Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, Berkeley CA 94720 Understanding how lineages diversify is central to evolutionary biology, and founder events are proposed to sometimes be involved in the generation of diversity within lineages whose histories appear to involve rapid radiations. Darwin (1859) noted about the Galapagos that ―…the inhabitants of each separate island, though mostly distinct, are related in an incomparably closer degree to each other than to the inhabitants of any other part of the world‖, setting the stage for over a century of research on oceanic archipelagos aimed at explaining what combination of factors drives this observed pattern. Phytophagous insects are excellent model systems for investigating the processes of diversification because of their extremely high diversity and specialized lifestyles. The genus Nesosydne (Delphacidae: Hemiptera), is incredibly speciose on the Hawaiian Islands. Our study uses evidence from multiple molecular data sets to describe the biodiversity patterns at multiple evolutionary scales. We report evidence that founder events have played a role in generating the striking patterns of genetic diversification in a Big Island species from this group. 3S. CAN QUANTITATIVE POLLINATION WEBS PROVIDE INSIGHT TO CO- EVOLUTION WITHIN A DEGRADED HAWAIIAN ECOSYSTEM? Patrick R. Aldrich University of Hawaii-Manoa, Department of Zoology, Honolulu, HI 96822 Recent concerns about the worldwide decline of pollinators and the possible ecosystem- wide consequences incurred highlight the importance of understanding how pollinator communities interact and change as natural ecosystems degrade and are invaded by alien species. Pollination webs provide information on how these systems function and change, and may provide insight into how species co-evolve and how species loss may alter these 3 co-evolved relationships. Most of Hawaii‘s native ecosystems have undergone massive conversion and loss, with many members of the flora and fauna becoming rare or extinct. Hawaiian tropical dry forests in particular, are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. Currently, less than 10% of these forests remain, and what is left is highly degraded and found in small remnant patches. Non-native plants and insects dominate the landscape in and around these remnant patches. To understand how community interactions may be altered by a degradation of an ecosystem, I constructed a quantitative pollination web to answer the question of whether natives interact more closely with natives, and non-natives with non-natives. When the web is separated into native pollinators and non-native pollinators, native pollinators only visit native plants in addition to only three non-native plants. In comparison, non-native pollinators show no preference between native and non-native plants. The native bee fauna, a monophyletic group within the genus Hylaeus, shows remarkable adherence to native plants, even though these plants species are from a variety of families with extremely different flower morphologies. Because of this fidelity, I investigated whether the native bees were better pollinators than the more common non-native honeybees. To test whether native bees were more efficient pollinators of native plants, a randomized block design was employed. The results suggest that, while the plants require a visitor for increased seed set, the identity of the pollinator is not important. In terms of co-evolution, the native bees appear to be using cues other than flower morphology, color or shape to choose what plant species to forage on. The native plant species whose seed set were investigated appear to have evolved away from self fertilization, but have not evolved toward a specialized pollinator system. 4S. TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS: A STRONGE FORCE IN GENOME EVOLUTION Jennifer Wright and Peter Atkinson University of California-Riverside, Entomology Department, Riverside, CA 92521 With the publication of several important insect genomes: Drosophila melanogaster, Anopheles gambiae, Apis mellifera, Aedes egypti and Tribolium castaneum, the genomic era is offering entomologists new tools to study evolution. Comparative and functional genomics provide the ability to revolutionize the field of Entomology and shed light on the phylogentic relationships as well as the evolutionary history of an insect species. These genome projects have opened the door to look more closely and expansively at important genetic components such as transposable elements. Transposable elements (TEs) are mobile pieces of DNA with the ability to insert themselves within a host genome thus establishing their continual propagation within a population. For example, TEs represent approximately 47% of the Aedes aegypti genome and 8% of the D. melanogaster genome highlighting both the prevalence and difference of TE loads in different insect species. Recently, studies have implicated the RNAi silencing pathways in the suppression of the mobility of these elements enabling an organism to retard TEs ability to spread within the genome. The ubiquitous distribution of these elements is an 4 excellent example of Darwin‘s ―Survival of the fittest‖ representing an interesting host/parasite relationship that deserves further investigation. Moreover, through the comparative analysis of TE location, number, regulation and domestication much can be learned about an organism‘s evolutionary history. 5S. DIVERSIFICATION AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE CRYOPHILOUS INSECT FAMILY GRYLLOBLATTIDAE Sean Schoville University of California-Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Berkeley CA 94720 Historical climate change has caused the diversification and extinction of species, as well as rapid shifts in population size and geographic distribution. Over the last three million years, animals and plants in temperate latitudes have