SEMINAR: Thursday Sep. 21, 11AM in the 8th floor conference room of the 
Lister Hill building (Bldg 38A).

SPEAKER: Christof Stumpf, Ph. D. 

TITLE: A Revision of the Pit Scale Species in the Subfamily 
Asterolecaniinae in North and South America"

Dr. Stumpf is a candidate for a position with the NCBI taxonomy group. 
Pit scales are insects. The abstract is appended below.


ABSTRACT The pit scales or Asterolecaniidae represent a diverse group 
found in all major biogeographical regions of the world on a variety of 
host plants.  Specimens for study were obtained from institutions in 
North and South America.  Species were described and illustrated based 
on morphological characters of the adult females. Computer-generated 
illustrations for each species were developed and stored in electronic 
files.  Computer-generated phylogenetic trees were developed and tested 
for robustness.  A key was developed to include the 64 species of pit 
scales found in North and South America representing 12 genera.  From 
these, 48 species were described and illustrated.  In the U.S., 18 
species of the subfamily Asterolecaniinae occur in seven genera.  The 
phylogenetic relationships of 38 species in the subfamily 
Asterolecaniinae were evaluated based on 43 morphological characters of 
the adult females. A complete consensus tree of the 40 most 
parsimonious trees was developed.  This study suggests that most genera 
may be monophyletic, while the genera Asterolecanium and Palmaspis 
appear to be paraphyletic.  Pit scale biodiversity has not been 
adequately investigated, and many additional discoveries of new species 
are expected from tropical regions.