Macroevolution of bees and plants
“Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution” said T. Dobzhansky in 1973. To understand how evolution shapes form, behaviour and geographic distribution of bees and plants, I use a set of comparative biology approaches. Constructing phylogenetic relationships and divergence times among organisms offer us a unique opportunity to estimate character history and to explain the current uneven distribution of organisms and the rise of vegetation domains with its particular bee fauna and flora. My main focus are bees of the family Apidae, but also Neotropical groups of plants visited by bees, such as Orchidaceae, Plantaginaceae and others. Besides mutualism, I am also interested in antagonistic interactions, specifically the cleptoparasitism in bees.
Related publications
Martins, A. C., Bochorny, T., Pérez-Escobar, O. A., Chomicki, G., Monteiro, S. H. N., & Smidt, E. D. C. 2018. From tree tops to the ground: reversals to terrestrial habit in Galeandra orchids (Epidendroideae: Catasetinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (in press).
Martins, A. C., Luz, D. R., & Melo, G. A. R. 2018. Palaeocene origin of the Neotropical lineage of cleptoparasitic bees Ericrocidini-Rhathymini (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Systematic Entomology 43: 510–521.
Couto, R. S., Martins, A.C., Bolson, M., Lopes, R. C., Smidt, E. C., Braga, J.M. A. Time calibrated tree of Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae) indicates four origins of yams in the Neotropics since Eocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (in press)
Smidt, E. C., Toscano de Brito, A., Martins, A. C., Royer, C. A., Whitten, M., Chase, M. Phylogeny, biogeography, and character evolution in Ornithocephalus clade (Orchidaceae, Oncidiinae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (in press)
Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Chomicki, G., Condamine, F.L., de Vos, J.M., Martins, A. C., Smidt, E.C., Klitgård, B., Gerlach, G., Heinrichs, J. 2017. Multiple Geographical Origins of Environmental Sex Determination enhanced the diversification of Darwin’s Favourite Orchids. 7: 12878.
Martins, A. C., Melo, Gabriel A. R. 2016. The New World oil-collecting bees Centris and Epicharis (Hymenoptera, Apidae): molecular phylogeny and biogeographical history. Zoologica Scripta 45: 22-33.
Martins, A. C., Scherz, M. D., Renner, S. S. 2014. Several origins of floral oil in the Angelonieae, a southern hemisphere disjunct clade of Plantaginaceae. American Journal of Botany 101: 2113 – 2120.
Martins, A. C., Melo, G. A. R, Renner, S. S. 2014. The corbiculate bees arose from New World oil-collecting bees: Implications for the origin of pollen baskets. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 80: 88 – 9