ABSTRACT
Velvet ants (mutillids) are a diverse and charismatic family of parasitoid wasps, characterised by extreme sexual dimorphism and a striking array of anti-predator adaptations. Females are wingless and heavily defended, with a painful venomous sting, a thick exoskeleton, and multiple aposematic signals (olfactory, auditory, and visual). In North America, these defences underpin one of the largest known Müllerian mimicry complexes. Yet despite their diversity and ecological significance, mutillids are severely understudied, especially in Australasia, where most species have been lumped into a placeholder genus, Ephutomorpha, and many remain unidentifiable below subfamily. Given the challenging nature of mutillid taxonomy, a comprehensive molecular phylogeny is essential for understanding the diversity and relationships within the Australasian fauna. For my doctoral research I generated a large UCE phylogenomic dataset, spanning all Australian genera, to reconstruct the first phylogenetic hypotheses of the group and to provide a framework for assessing the eco-evolutionary processes shaping present-day patterns of diversity.

BIOGRAPHY
Madalene is a PhD candidate, supervised by Craig Moritz (ANU), Kevin Williams (CDFA), and Juanita Rodriguez (ANIC). She is broadly interested in hymenopteran systems, particularly those exhibiting the parasitoid lifestyle, and is actively working on the Mutillidae, Ichneumonidae, and Chalcidoidea. She became increasingly interested in understanding the natural world after a previous career as a research diver in Thailand. She currently works at the South Australian Museum while finalising her doctoral research.