Towards simultaneous analysis of morphological and molecular data in Hymenoptera

Accepted 5 January 1999 Carpenter, J. M. & W. C. Wheeler. (1999). Towards simultaneous analysis of molecular and morphological data in Hymenoptera. Ð Zoologica Scripta 28, 251±260. Principles and methods of simultaneous analysis in cladistics are reviewed, and the first, preliminary, analysis of combined molecular and morphological data on higher level relationships in Hymenoptera is presented to exemplify these principles. The morphological data from Ronquist et al. (in press) matrix, derived from the character diagnoses of the phylogenetic tree of Rasnitsyn (1988), are combined with new molecular data for representatives of 10 superfamilies of Hymenoptera by means of optimization alignment. The resulting cladogram supports Apocrita and Aculeata as groups, and the superfamly Chrysidoidea, but not Chalcidoidea, Evanioidea, Vespoidea and Apoidea. James M. Carpenter, Department of Entomology, and Ward C. Wheeler, Department of Invertebrates, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79 Street, New York, NY 10024, U SA. E-mail: [email protected]