John Wenzel, Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Ecosystems

wenzelj@carnegiemnh.org
724.593.4555
Powdermill Nature Reserve
1847 Route 381
Rector, PA 15677

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Research Interests

• Philosophy behind Cladistic Methods (a.k.a. "Two pages of perspective, 200 years of philosophy"). Click here for PDF
  
  
• Theory and methodology of phylogenetic reconstruction
  
  Related publications:
  2003 Freudenstein, J. V., K. M. Pickett, M. P. Simmons, and J. W. Wenzel. From basepairs to birdsongs: Phylogenetic data in the age of genomics. Cladistics 19: 333-347. Click here for PDF
  2002 Simmons, M. P., C. P. Randle, J. V. Freudenstein, and J. W. Wenzel. Limitations of relative apparent synapomorphy analysis (RASA) for measuring phylogenetic signal. Molecular Biology and Evolution 19: 14-23.
  1999 Wenzel, J. W., and M. E. Siddall. Noise. Cladistics 15: 51-64. Click here for PDF
  1997 Wenzel, J. W. When is a phylogenetic test good enough? Memoires du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle 173: 31-45.
  1995 Miller, J. S., and J. W. Wenzel. Ecological characters and phylogeny. Annual Review of Entomology 40: 389-415. Click here for PDF
  1992 Wenzel, J. W. Behavioral homology and phylogeny. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 23: 361-381.
  
  
• Evolution of complex and adaptive behaviors in insects
  
  Related publications:
  2003 Branham, M. A., and J. W. Wenzel. The origin of photic behavior and the evolution of sexual communication in fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Cladistics 19: 1-22. Click here for PDF
  2002 Bucheli, S., J.-F. Landry, and J. Wenzel. Larval case architecture and implications of host-plant associations for North American Coleophora (Lepidoptera; Coleophoridae). Cladistics 18: 71-93. Click here for PDF
  2001 Blackledge, T. A., and J. W. Wenzel. Silk mediated defense by an orb web spider against predatory mud-dauber wasps. Behaviour 138: 155-171.
  2001 Blackledge, T. A., and J. W. Wenzel. State-determinate foraging decisions and web architecture in the spider Dictyna volucripes (Araneae Dictynidae). Ethology Ecology and Evolution 13: 105-113.
  2000 Pickett, K. M., A. McHenry, and J. W. Wenzel. Nestmate recognition in the absence of a pheromone. Insectes Sociaux 47: 212-219. Click here for PDF
  2000 Blackledge, T. A., and J. W. Wenzel. The evolution of cryptic spider silk: A behavioral test. Behavioral Ecology 11: 142-145.
  1995 Miller, J. S., and J. W. Wenzel. Ecological characters and phylogeny. Annual Review of Entomology 40: 389-415.
  1994 Wenzel, J. W., J. M. Carpenter, P. Eggleton, and R. Vane-Wright. Comparing methods: Adaptive traits and tests of adaptation, pp. 79-101, Linnean Society Symposium Series; Phylogenetics and ecology.
  
  
• Sociobiology of Hymenoptera
  
  
• Insect Systematics (Current)
  - Systematics of Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera)
  - Systematics of Argia (Odonata)
  - Systematics of Acanthomyops (Hymenoptera)
  

Click here for a list of publications