Graduate Student to Discuss Systematics of Eastern North American Podothrombiumin

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Kelsey Cline is a graduate student in Ashley Dowling's lab in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology.

The Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology is hosting seminar speaker Kelsey Cline, a graduate student in Ashley Dowling's lab, today. The seminar is titled, "Systematics of eastern North American Podothrombium."

The seminar takes place from 1-2 p.m. via Zoom link:

• Meeting link: http://tiny.cc/wg7auz
• Meeting ID: 878 0521 5763
• Passcode: email enpl@uark.edu

The seminar is open to everyone.

Kelsey describes the research:

"Velvet mites of the genus Podothrombium Berlese, 1910, are found worldwide with only two described species known from North America, both occurring on the west coast. The present study describes five new species occurring in the east, from both larval and post-larval stages. Species hypotheses are supported with morphology and analysis of mitochondrial (barcoding region of COI) and nuclear genes (D2-3 expansion regions of 28S rDNA). Specimens are incorporated from the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD), allowing our dataset to span most of North America. Therefore, we were able to raise the number of Podothrombium in North America from two species to seven. The first comprehensive taxonomic key to larval and post-larval Podothrombium of the world and the first eastern North American taxonomic key are included."

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