There are two primary goals of the research proposed in this planning grant: 1) to investigate the reliability of the sister group relationship between the bumble bees and stingless bees (two tribes of the family Apidae) inferred from a recent parsimony analysis of mitochondrial rRNA sequences; and 2) to provide the phylogenetic foundation for developing a long term research program focusing on the evolution of social traits within the primitively eusocial apid tribe Bombini (bumble bees) by constructing a phylogeny of the species within the behaviorally diverse bumble bee subgenus Fervidobombus. The results of this nested phylogenetic investigation will provide knowledge of the appropriate outgroup to the bumble bees, a necessity for understanding relationships within the bumble bees. Resolution of the relationships within Fervidobombus will provide the foundation for understanding many of the behavioral transitions from relatively simple to more complex social behavior that have occurred within the subgenus. Ultimately, this interdisciplinary approach, which integrates systematics and animal behavior by using phylogenies to test hypotheses of behavioral transformation, will increase understanding and collaboration between these two important disciplines of evolutionary biology. The study will also increase understanding of the biology of an important group of insect pollinators of wild and crop plants. //
