Dr Christine Lambkin - Queensland Museum Staff
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Christine Lambkin is a Curator of Entomology and is responsible for the Queensland Museum's collections of Diptera (flies), Coleoptera (beetles), Orthoptera (grasshoppers), Hemiptera (bugs), Phasmatodea (stick insects), and a number of smaller insect orders. Chris is currently co-ordinating the databasing of the IBISCA Queensland project, an international collaboration between Griffith University, the Queensland Museum, the Queensland Herbarium, the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service, Pro-Natura International, and the National Parks Association of Queensland and SEQ Catchments quantifying changes in biodiversity along an altitudinal gradient in Lamington National Park. Her main research interest is the systematics, evolution, and biodiversity of Diptera, specialising in combined molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses and monographic revisions of beeflies (Bombyliidae) and stiletto flies (Therevidae). During a Postdoctoral Fellowship at CSIRO Entomology Canberra, Christine began work on the genus Ectinorhynchus for the American National Science Foundation (NSF), Partnerships Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy TherevidPEET project. Chris's continuing studies include novel methods such as supertree construction, to produce the first overall phylogenetic hypothesis for the Family Therevidae. In collaboration with Brian Wiegmann (Univ. North Carolina), Chris is now investigating the use of Bayesian analyses to estimate the divergence times of radiations in the Australian stiletto flies. Chris is also developing with ABRS an on-line Australian Faunal Directory of Australian Therevidae. Christine also continues to work on the large international initiative, FLYTREE, in the American NSF Assembling the Tree of Life program. Chris is part of a group of world experts in dipteran morphology developing the first comprehensive morphological character set and scored matrix for all fly families in the Order Diptera. Analyses of morphological characters and genomic data for at least one species of all fly families will be amalgamated into a meta-analysis-based supertree for 1500-2000 species of flies. A comprehensive phylogeny for all Diptera will provide a valuable framework for testing evolutionary hypotheses critical in comparative studies of dipteran development, behaviour, genomics, and neurobiology and provide a major organizing framework for research in the astounding diversity of flies.
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