The Causes and Consequences of Synanthropic Life-History Evolution of Fungus Moths (Family Tineidae): Some Moths Eat Weird Stuff

-Goal: To explore evolutionary origins and biogeography of globally distributed, and economically important, pest species, Tineola bisselliella

- Synanthrope: an undomesticated species that capitalizes on, and thrives within, human environments (Bogdanova 2008) 

-Tineola bisselliella (webbing clothes moths) are globally distributed pest species within the oldest Ditrysian moth family (Tineidae; Regier et al. 2015)

-Tineidae: cryptic micromoths; unresolved phylogeny; weird diet of keratin, detritus, and fungi; many pest species (Robinson & Nielsen 1993)

-Hypothesis: ancestral diet shift facilitated synanthropy

-Preliminary results:  Multiple Independent origins of synanthropy related to diet; Tineola is monophyletic but embedded within paraphyletic Tinea