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Chris,
who has provided some technical assistance to the therevid
team in the past, will continue the work on the phylogenetics
of the Therevidae concentrating on the genus Ectinorhynchus
and its allies, in arid and semiarid environments of Australia
(see Australian Expeditions).
Part of Chris's time will be spent investigating the use of
web-based dissemination of interactive keys, data, and monographic
work. Chris is also investigating the systematic methods that
we use in phylogenetic analysis, such as supertree analyses,
and is heavily involved in the training and development of
scientific knowledge in this area in Australia, America, and
Europe.
Christine
spent 5 weeks in 2001 in Illinios USA with PI Irwin
learning the intricacies of the electronic therevid database
MANDALA into which all Australian
Therevids will be entered, and to gain understanding of the
morphology of the Taenogera-Group (a genus-group of the Therevidae).
In Canberra, Chris is able to access MANDALA from the FileMakerPro
Server in Illinois through the host seeking capabilities of
FileMaker Pro over the internet. She can thus enter data and
search records from the live database as if she were at UIUC,
limited primarily by internet speeds over such distance. Gail
Kampmeier developed a script that allows her to export information
from MANDALA via the internet, open it in Microsoft Excel,
and with a minimal amount of massaging, enter the data into
the CSIRO program BioLink.
A
major contribution of our project is training the next generation
of systematists. Christine continued this training at PEET
IV, June 2002 by coordinating a workshop Character
Incongruence between Data Partitions that covered
the history of incongruence studies, taxonomic and character
congruence, and the prior agreement approach. Hands-on experience
was given in assessing incongruence, measuring phylogenetic
signal from partitions in combined analysis, partitioned branch
support, partitioned hidden branch support, and partitioned
character support. At the same conference Chris contributed
to the workshop on Morphological Character Analysis
by speaking on Missing
characters and inapplicables - the '?' state.
Chris also organised an all day Symposium Incongruence,
Data Partitions, and Phylogenetic Signal for the Sixth
International Congress for Systematic and Evolutionary Biology in Patras, Greece on the 9-16 of September 2002. At this conference
Chris spoke on Systematics, evolution, and incongruence:
Insights from the World Exoprosopini (Diptera: Bombyliidae)
and gave a presentation for Mark Metz For a future in Systematics
and the marketability of the discipline: A student perspective
on current attitudes and how to prepare for a supply and demand
world.
Christine
was a member of the local organising committee for the 5th
International Congress of Dipterology, in Brisbane Australia
30 Sept-5 Oct 2002, chaired the section on Phylogeny of
Cyclorrhapha, and gave 3 presentations: Modern Innovations
in Systematic Inquiry; Significant incongruence can be informative:
Insights from partitioned support analyses, and The Exoprosopini,
Australia and the world: Revelations from systematic studies.
Christine’s
work has been acknowledged by the systematic community who
voted her into positions as Council Member of the International
Organization for Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (IOSEB),
2002-2008, and as Councillor of the Society
of Australian Systematic Biologists (SASB).
Chris
was interviewed in August 2001 for an Australian-wide radio
Media release on therevids titled ‘Jurassic Flies’
that was incorporated into ENN,
the Environmental News Network, in Jurassic
Flies Survive, Taxonomists face Extinction. Christine
was filmed in August 2002 for the Australian-wide television
program "Totally Wild" titled Stiletto Flies.
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