Euphorinae

Manuscript submitted - again..

2010-12-28T04:48:00.001-08:00

Finally, the manuscript is re-submitted to the Journal of Natural History. It took several hours but now I'm satisfied! Hopefully we don't need to wait for 4 month this time for a reply??
So... back to making nice trees (phylogenetical) for my BIG revision!!!

Euphorinae in Laramie, University of Wyoming

2010-10-07T16:01:00.001-07:00

I am visiting Prof. Scott Shaw and looking at his great collection of Braconidae, especially Euphorinae.

Wolbachia...

2010-09-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

The wolbachia thing...
Some time ago I tried ITS on my so called Wolbachia infected specimens, at least it looked like they were infected since the morphology didn't agree with COI sequences. Anyway ITS also shows that they are the same species. So what's wrong? Either they are that variable in morphology or there have been some contamination with the DNA. I don't really believe in the first alternative so it must be the second, though I doubt that too! But considering my human factor..... When there is time I'll extract the specimens again, if there is anything left.

GenBank, check!

2010-09-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

GenBank submission is now done! Not so hard after all but time consuming this first time.
The drawn illustrations are done and the pictures for the key is on the go! I have to do that at home because it is easiest done in Adobe InDesign and we don't have that at work! So while at work I have some time over for wasp sorting. Also I have to pick out a couple of specimens for my colleagues so that they can try the key out - maybe I'll do that now?!

New week

2010-08-17T04:55:00.001-07:00

The weekend was too nice to spend working indors. But now the formatting is done. Just recieved 4 holotypes from Japan and today I'm taking their pictures. Need to return them fast so that I'll get the last delivery before MS is submitted. Then I'll go on taking pic's for the key and then I'll submit sequences to Genbank.... I don't look forward to that!

Finishing the revision

2010-08-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

What's up!?

I'm just formatting my manuscript after Zootaxas forms - tables and figures in separate files, references were time consuming. Next step is submitting sequences to GenBank... that will be even harder. And then the illustrations!! First of all I have to get together some photos for the key - so that some persons can try it out and evaluate it. And that's quite a few pic's! 54 steps in the key and every step at least has 1 picture. Then I have to submit more pictures to Morphbank. That's at least 5 pictures for every species. But then I think I'm done!? All MrBayes analyses are done now but I still have to run a parsimony analysis on the morphological matrix. Just that I don't really remember how to use the program TNT??
But the weekend is here, it's Friday today... We'll see if I can finish the MS formatting during Sunday!

Hymenoptera conference!

2010-06-16T01:24:00.000-07:00

Getting things ready for the Hymenoptera conference in Hungary!
Packing research stuff, articles and MS, traps and excursion gear.

Have to remember to go through my presentation also!!!!! I just don't know what version I sent the organizers....

Flight is sceduled on sunday 20th with return date to sweden the 29th

Wolbachia

2010-05-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I got dazzled!
The bacteria Wolbachia alters the mtDNA of the host so that two (or more) different species within the same genera has exactly same mtDNA sequences. In my case they are so closely related that the species I look at have also identical 28S D2 sequences. So how can I know that they are the same species or not. Morphology tells they are not same... I'll have to sequence ITS2...

The end is near...

2010-04-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

Update.
Fredrik is going through my introductionary paper and I think I'll have it returned to me today. A lot of corrections and adding of the text are awaiting me. Hope to have it finished by the end of next week.
Finally I also have got contact with Kyushu univ. and they are going to send holotypes to me (4 at a time though). But I'm grateful for anything!
The final sequences will also hopefully arrive today - are the finnish species the same or not??
I want my MS to be ready soon too! And London... in May maybe? If the volcano can keep still.

Cyrrent work

2010-04-13T03:56:00.000-07:00

Now I am *going through the comments I got on my manuscript.
*Sequencing 3 specimens from yet another new Finnish species.
*Trying to figure out the position of some species like pallipes, ruficeps, valid or not valid and how come. It is a tricky web to go through.
Next week I am off to British Museum in London - studying specimens! Then I have one week to finish off my manuscript. I am waiting to do the final analyses on the tribe until I have got all the sequences. Hopefully I'll get them next week or better up - by the end of this week.

Hurry, hurry - curry, curry!

New week!

2010-03-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

This weeks work:
Sequencing a new species, analysing, photograph it and put it in a manuscript.
Also taking a lot of photos of different holotypes I have loaned. A lot of photos... time consuming, neck breaking work. Describe several new species and resurrecting synonyms, syncronizing the species descriptions in my manuscript (MS). Check and double check species material and keys. And today I seem to be a bit off balance ~ maybe due to the summer time change? After all it might be a good day to sit alone and just take photos all day long, listen to music and ponder on the MS...

Manuscript evaluation

2010-03-14T00:41:00.000-08:00

My Manuscript is distributed amongst some of my Hymenoptera and PhD colleagues at our department. Next thurdsay they'll evaluate it and hopefully tell me what more is needed. I'm kind of nervouse though, but really want to know what they think.
I am currently trying to loan type material from Bryssel, Vienna, Turin, Napels, Budapest.... so that I can identify what specimens that are cryptic or not.
Going to London in April. Lot's of FUN!

Melting Pot at NRM

2010-03-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

Monday and Tuseday this week there is a seminar going on at our museum, the Melting Pot.
It is for all the research departments and it is about the different research at the museum.
So that we get insight in what's going on next door, find new collaborators and share stuff.
Today I had a talk about the my research "Systematics of the spaced-out Meteorus". I only took up the results, just because the fact that I missed the result part when I talked at the Systematikdagara 2009 in november last year. Then during the afternoon I was moderating a session of really interresting research. Tomorrow I just have to sit back and listen...

Iron balls!

2010-03-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

Now we've got them to!
I'm talking about the iron balls... Bought two sizes, 4 cm and 2.5 cm diameter. The smaller one feels better and doesn't take so much place. They are great, I can twist the specimen in any direction getting perfect views of dorsal or ventral or any side without having to relocate the specimen. Really recomended to entomologists that have shaky hands or are as clumpsy as I am!

Finally the course has ended

2010-02-17T00:47:00.000-08:00

Yes on Tuesday we submitted the big project and the Molecular systematics course is over!

It was a great course - now I understand a lot because even though I have read the litterature it is still hard to get in your head. The lecturers were thus great at explaining everything.

Also I just mailed a company manufacturing iron balls(?) as seen here on the picture. I got the idea from St. Petersburg.

Dr Belokobylskij and his collegues uses this very effective, easy handle "thing". Hopefully I can buy a couple or better up - be sponsored?? A really good "thing", maybe someone else have constructed something even better? There are a lot of entomologists and we all have the same or similar problems so some one might have thought of something like this before?

DNA from Finland

2010-02-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Now the sequences are here, analysed with Mr Bayes and ready to go!
The specimen turns out to belong to the M. rubens complex... I more thought that it would be close with the M.versicolor species. On monday I shall check the morphology, write a proposal of a description, take photos, inklude the species in my key and get the combined analysis running! All on monday!!! NO!!!!!
Hopefully this will be done sometime during the week...
I'm attending a Molecular systematics course and for the coming weeks we got a BIG assignment that will take most of my time. Why is there only 24 hours a day??!! It isn't enough!!! I'm really not sure what to do first - but I guess my Introductionary paper is what I need to finish first.

New species from Finland

2010-01-30T01:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah!

Dr Veli Vikberg just sent me 3 specimens of a completely new species of Meteorus. It's totally black and the whole surface is rugose - cool and interesting since no specimen so far has been so black. It was hatched from a butterfly that is very rare in Sweden and only found in Abisko. Maybe this butterfly occurs more frequently in Finland?

Specimen from northern parts seem to be more black than others...

Anyway I'm going to sequence this specimen, see where the DNA fits in my tree of already sequenced Meteorus species (about 40 species), and then maybe the data can be included in Dr Vikeberg and Dr Belokobylskijs paper describing this specimen. Hopefully the lab work will be completed on tuesday! I extracted the DNA yesterday (Friday), monday morning I'm going to sequence them. Depending on how fast the machenes run (PCR and Gel electrophoresis) and the quality of the extracts I'll hopefully be ready for sequencing on Tuesday. But we'll se how that goes.

I'm attending a course in Molecular systematics also and that takes a lot of my time.

Then upon all that I'm struggling with my Introductionary paper... Nights and weekends are booked for writing that paper.

Tally-ho, tally-ho....

St. Petersburg

2010-01-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

Yeah, St Petersburg!

A great week with lots of looking at new type specimens for me, cold weather but a warm welcome from Dr Belokobylskij and his collegues. Interesting new things and methods learned and will be applied.
Beutiful town too, at least the little I saw due to cold weather -18C!....
Must go back!!!!!!!

Introductionary paper

2010-01-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

It's called Introductionary paper...
I gave it to my supervisor and got the feedback that I had made it more like a scientific article. Have to change and write a lot more.

But on monday 18th I'm going to Russia, St. Petersburg, to visit the museum there and Dr Belokoylskij. I have some other material with me to other scientists there and I'll have some beetles with me for our department. Acting courier....
I'll only be gone for 5 days so it will be busy days for me!

Doktoranduppsats - pre-(?) PhD paper

2010-01-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Pre-PhD paper - it's a paper we PhD students at Stockholm University have to write before we start our seriouse research... I've been fully at work with my first real paper before I was reminded to write this pre-PhD paper.
I've been struggling with this paper all Christmas, doing as much as possible during the holidays.
About 30 pages, 9 weeks = 15 points.
Soon, or coming week I'll hope to deliver it to my supervisor for the first check. If I've got it right and wether I'm on the right track or not. I haven't decided on title yet but the article is about the host relationship of the Euphorinae and I'm looking to see if the old hypothesies are still OK though the phylogeny have come to new insights.
My first problem was the information about the hosts. How reliable are they? My group are adult parsitoids attacking Coloptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, Hemiptera, Psocoptera and Orthoptera. Well, then I found lots and lots of references to Lepidoptera!?

Over and out for this time!

New tidings

2010-01-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

New Year, new ideas, new fighting spirit, new energy....!
and a crashed computer :-(

2009-12-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ubuntu

2009-12-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

Virtual box - wubi - or create another partition for Ubuntu... any ideas what suits me best??
I'm just going to run some programs, PAUP, Putty and stuff I need in my research. But I'm clueless!

Ichneumon rufus

2009-12-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Ichneumon rufus - I translated the original description along with DeGeers stories, with help from dear colleague Julio. So it turned out that DeGeer caught that wasp at Lövsta here in Sweden... It hatched from a geometrid moth... M. unicolor parasitizes Zygaenidae...(check ref!) so then it can't be the same species as M.unicolor anyway?!!

What's up DECEMBER?

2009-12-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

Mmm, today the department is going to have a christmas lunch at Tyrol!!! I've been looking forward to this event for a long time!

Otherwise I'm taking SEM-pics and checking up species names that are a bit troublesome. Like Meteorus rufus, Meteorus unicolor, Meteorus ruficeps, Meteorus pallidus etc. I'm not so sure how to behave concerning changing names, handling nomen oblitum's and so on.

Have to ask my senior colleagues how to do.

This M. rufus by DeGeer for instance - the specimen is lost and Huddleston (1981) put it as nomen oblitum. We have the DeGeer collection at my museum so it was easy to check. There is no pin hole either so the specimen must have been lost before the relocation of the collection into other drawers. I even checked Paykull's collection since I have been told that he had an interest in "borrowing" interesting specimens from others.

Later checklists has put M. rufus as a syn. to M. unicolor, the poor description fits OK: red with very long antennae and ovipositor as long as metasoma. The antennal length fits very well along with the length of the ovipositor.

But! I haven't seen any specimen from Sweden of this M. unicolor and DeGeer collected his specimen in Sweden (i think? note to check!).

Anyway, to make a neotype I have to find a M. unicolor from at least Sweden, better with a locality closer to DeGeers original locality.

As I understand there is no good in having a nomen oblitum hanging around...?

So I'd better make that phone call to K. J. Hedqvist!! He ought to have a M. unicolor??

Meteorus cis from Irkutsk

2009-11-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

Okey, after korresponding with Prof. Achterberg in Leiden the wing venation of M. cis should be antefurcal and sometimes almost interstitial. I'll have to hav a second look at my specimens. By the way, I couldn't get any sequences out from the Irkutsk, maybe it was to old (40 years) and I need to have other primers.

Back to reality.

2009-10-31T00:35:00.000-07:00

So, this week I have sequenced more specimens and the results will come in the beginning of next week. I have also made descriptions of som Russian species (already described) just to fit them into my key of European Meteorus.

We at the Entomological department are currently doing a pest controll of our collections and to my surprice I found a little box of Meteorus just amongst a drawer of undetermined Coleoptera. They were from Irkutsk and collected by Leiler. I identified them as Meteorus cis, the host, a coleoptera of the genera Cis, was glued underneath!
But when I compared it with the M. cis in the collection I noticed that the wingvenetion was different. The recurrent vein was interstitial in those already identified material and distinctly postfurcal in the new from Irkutsk. And there is no litterature at all showing wingvenetion of M. cis! I'm going to sequence this new one and also ask around for pictures of a wing. Unfortunately the Holotype is lost and there seems not to be any types left either... One of my identifications is evidently wrong but which one?

I'm also going to install Ubuntu on my PC, got a mail from our Computer support that I'll have to do it myself, but they will rescue me with the backup if necessary... Help???

Morphbank

2009-10-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've been putting my own project on hold for a while now, more urgent matters have taken my time. I have contributed some material to an article - molecular help, and for that I'm rewarded the co authorship! My first article! I'm so happy!! But actually I'm utterly grateful to Keyvan for all advice, help and her way to change my hopeless feeling (about troubling sequencing) into a more hopeful one.

Well, next step is to get my species photos in to Morphbank via FTP - anyone who knows how? I don't but I'll investigate tomorrow. Also I'm going to try and install Linux on my PC, not by myself, through the IT-support of course.
Photograph more specimens.
Prepare specimens for SEM.
Sequence 30-40 more specimen, but first check morphological characters on the troubling specimens like M. affinis, M. pendulus etc.

I also need to go to St. Petersburg and visit Belokobylskij, just waiting for an invitation and I'll be flying off. Need to go to London and Leiden also... and then I'm the arranging a PhD course in end of November with Niels Peder Kristensen and Rolf Beutel! -Non-molecular characters in systematik entomology.

Where should I start?!!

Meteorus affinis fom Finland

2009-10-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Meteorus affinis from Finland are from the area near Jyväskylä - situated about 200 km from the coast, and about 350 km from Vindeln in Sweden.

Is it easier for the finnish specimen to spread westward with the wind over the Baltic Sea than for the swedish specimen to spread within Sweden.

(Meteorus affinis)

Meteorus affinis tree

2009-10-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

Now I have added the affinis tree link in the list to the right, so you all can veiw the placement of the finnish "maffinis" amongst my swedish affinis. My swedish specimens come from:

Nr 88 - Skuleskogen (Northern part of SWE but not so far as Vindeln)
Nr 86 - Värmland (Middle part of SWE but a bit to the west)

Nr 46 - Ystad (Southern part of SWE, southern coast)

Nr 95 - Tyresta (Middle part of SWE, Stockholm area - east coast)
Nr 89 - Klippan (Southern part of SWE, west coast)

Nr 87 - Vindeln (northern part of SWE, east coast)
Nr 27 - Vindeln (northern part of SWE, east coast)

The colours show how they grouped in the GMYC tree where my affinis divided into '4 species'. In a simple mrBayes analys the finnish came in amongst Nr 87 and 27. They just might be the most geographically close, I haven't got the sampling location of the finnish affinis yet...
For the analysis mrBayes 3.2 was used. 1000000generations and sampling every 1000. Sump and Sumt burnin=250

GMYC

2009-09-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

The GMYC gave me more species, up to 10 new species!
Now I have to check if I can see any morphological differences amongst these "new species".
The 'new species' are rather obvious even without GMYC, I just hadn't noticed them because of the long branchlengths of the outgroups which squeezed together the other branches. Checking locality of the 'new species' gives away some geological distribution. North - south, east - west, what would happen if I sampled specimen from localities inbetween?

Meteorus affinis - I have got 6 sequences from Finland that I will check with my sequences. Curiouse where they will place themselves...
Still needing more samples from other countries!!!

Desperate need of Meteorus!!

2009-09-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

I'm in desperate need of Meteorus specimen of the species affinis, pendulus, rubens, cis, ruficeps.
First of all from Europe!!! Anyone who knows anyone that does some sampling and may have material hidden away, sorted or unsorted.

Using R to do GMYC analysis

2009-09-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

Yepp, trying hard to do a Gmyc analysis in R. Well thats not the problem, the problem is my mrbayes runs. They just run on and on for ever... when I had run the analysis for 2 hours and the standard deviation was down to 0.013, the clock just started increasing and this morning after running the analysis over night the estimated time left was about 5 hours...

#NEXUS[ Title UPGMA]begin data;
dimensions ntax= 101 nchar= 658;
format missing=? gap=- matchchar=. datatype=dna;
matrix

At the end of the nexus file:

Begin mrbayes;
set autoclose=yes;
lset nst=2 rates=invgamma;
prset Brlenspr=Clock:
uniform;mcmc ngen=1000000 samplefreq=1000;
end;

2009-09-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Okey, now I know how to add "good" links.
I also want to share my papers as my Master thesis - how do I do that?
And other "good to have" pdf''s.....

New to Blogging

2009-09-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

I'm just trying to figure out how to blog and all the functions. Soon I hope to be able to present some of my reserach, when things run smooth and when thing goes uphill. Right now I'm running MrBayes a mixed analysis of COI and 28 sD2. Hopefully this will clarify the specieslimits and I'm really anxious to see the results. So far though it hasen't run without problem, but yesterday I got help from one of the best!

Bioinformatics course

2009-09-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

The course is great!

Today we learned cool stuff about wiki, scrachpads and a lot more...