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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
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image of Allograpta obliqua (by John Desjarlais)_Allograpta obliqua (Syrphidae) __(by J.Desjarlais)

Joaquin (Ximo) Mengual, SI Postdoctoral Fellow, Diptera and 2011 EOL Fellow

  • Phone: 202-633-1004
  • Fax: 202-786-2894
  • E-mail Address: MengualJ@si.edu

  • USPS Mailing Address:
    Smithsonian Institution
    Department of Entomology
    P.O. Box 37012
    MRC-0169
    Washington, DC 20013-7012

  • Education:

    PhD University of Alicante, Spain
    MS University of Alicante, Spain
    BS University of Alicante, Spain

 Ximo Mengual

Research Interests:

  • Systematics and taxonomy of true flies (Diptera) (specific focus on the World family Syrphidae).
  • Phylogenetics and molecular evolution of syrphids and larval feeding modes (specific focus on predation).

My general research interests are in diptera systematics and phylogenetics. I am working with Chris Thompson on the systematics of tropical genera of the family Syrphidae, such as Allograpta and Ocyptamus. The revision of the world-wide fauna of these genera needs the study of adult morphology, as well as larval characters when immature stages are known. More recently, molecular tools have been used to infer phylogenies and to help with species identification, like DNA barcoding. In the lab I use molecular techniques for extraction, amplification and sequencing of genes to be used in phylogenetic analyses. My dissertation revised the phylogeny and classification of the World subfamilies of Syrphidae, and the systematics of the genera included in the subfamily Syrphinae. Phylogenetic relationships among predatory syrphids and the evolution of predation were also studied.


Publications:

pdf Mengual, X. 2010. Book review: Manual of Central American Diptera, Volume 1. B. V. Brown, A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley and M. A. Zumbado. 2009. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 112 (3): 478-480.

pdf Mengual, X. and Ghorpadé, K. 2010.The flower fly genus Eosphaerophoria Frey (Diptera, Syrphidae). ZooKeys 33:39-80

pdf Mengual, X, Ruiz, C., Rojo, S., Ståhls, G. and Thompson, F.C. 2009. A conspectus of the flower fly genus Allograpta (Diptera: Syrphidae) with description of a new subgenus and species. Zootaxa, 2214: 1-28.

pdf Mengual, X, Ståhls, G. and Rojo, S. 2008. Molecular phylogeny of Allograpta (Diptera, Syrphidae) reveals diversity of lineages and non-monophyly of phytophagous taxa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 49 (3), 715-727.

pdf Mengual, X and Thompson, F.C. 2008. Palpada prietorum, a new flower fly from Colombia (Diptera: Syrphidae). Zootaxa, 1742: 31-36.

pdf Mengual, X., Ståhls, G. and Rojo, S. 2008. First phylogeny of predatory Flower flies (Diptera, Syrphidae, Syrphinae) using mitochondrial COI and nuclear 28S rRNA genes: conflict and congruence with the current tribal classification. Cladistics, 24, 543-562.

pdf Marcos-García, M.A., Vujic, A. and Mengual, X. 2007. Revision of Iberian species of the genus Merodon Meigen, 1803 (Diptera: Syrphidae). European Journal of Entomology 104: 531-572.

pdf Mengual, X., Ståhls, G., Vujic and Marcos-García, M.A. 2006. Integrative taxonomy of Iberian Merodon species (Diptera, Syrphidae). Zootaxa, 1377: 1-26.

 

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