1. Work in the Schwarz Lab that might be relevant to bee barcoding We currently comprise Mike Schwarz, 6 PhD students and a variable number of honours students. All postgraduate projects involve some or lots of DNA sequencing The next couple of slides will be on our current projects, then we’ll outline future plans (these will depend on a grant proposal currently being considered by the Australian Research Council)

2. Luke Chenoweth PhD student Phylogenetic analyses of Australian and African allodapines. His Australian study covers about a third of the Australian species, though a lack of taxonomic revision means that reliable species ID is almost impossible. Luke has also been dating key nodes in the allodapine phylogeny. His two most recent papers (i) indicate no losses of sociality in allodapines over a 40+ my period and (ii) erect a new genus for the majority of Madagascan allodapine species Genes: COI, cytb, EF1a Taxa: Allodapini

3. Jacki Smith PhD student Jacki works on origins of social parasitism in allodapines (Australia, Africa, Asia). Her work includes about 60-70 spp. and covers 8 of the 10 known origins of social parasitism. **Jacki is currently looking for a postdoc position. She will submit her PhD in June this year and her CV is extremely competitive! She’d make a great postdoc, but has a penchant for interesting places/cultures Genes: COI, cytb, EF1a Taxa: Allodapini

4. Sally Harradine PhD student Phylogenetic analyses of Australian Halictinae. Sal is also including representative halictines from Africa, Chile and Asia. The focus is on estimating dates of radiation for the major clades and identifying likely source regions for dispersals into Australia Sally’s work will include representatives of all Australian genera and subgenera, about 80 Australian species when complete. Genes: COI, EF1a, Opsin Taxa: Halictinae

5. Pelin Kayaalp: Phylogenetics of Australian Colletidae. Pelin is also including representatives from Africa, Asia and Chile. Pelin is currently concentrating on hylaeines and euryglossines. She may include colletines if time permits Genes: COI, EF1a, Opsin Taxa: Colletidae Pelin is finding that the Australian euryglossines seem to be related to the African Scrapterini, something already suggested by Eduardo Almeida. An interesting relationship between Australian and African clades!

6. Sandra Rehan Sandra is doing her PhD with Miriam Richards at Brock Univ, but does her molecular work in Schwarz’s lab. She is working on a global phylogeny of ceratinines including reps of nearly all New and Old World subgenera. Sandra has already covered the entire Australian ceratinine fauna (one species!) and is accumulating enough data to resolve all subgenera world-wide. Genes: COI, cytb, EF1a Taxa: Ceratinini

7. Future plans for Mike Schwarz’s group: Mike Schwarz has recently applied to the Australian Research Council for a 5 year grant to produce a complete phylogeny (down to subgeneric level) of all Australian bee groups. All subgenera (except monotypic ones) will have at least two representative species, and several larger genera (Lasiolgossum, Hylaeus, Leioproctus) will be intensively sampled. Total number of species we expect to sequence is about 500, spread over all families. We will know whether the grant application is successful by late October 2008 Taxa: All Australian bee subgenera Genes: COI, Cytb, EF-1a, Opsin, and Wingless

8. Because we routinely sequence large numbers of species, and our taxonomic breadth is increasing, it is relatively easy for us to obtain sequences for any region useful as a bar code. Our material is routinely stored in EtOH so that mtDNA for our currently non-target species remains viable for sequencing for many years We’re out there getting lots of sequence data - keep us in mind for bar-coding projects because we can add them to what we are already doing with minimal effort