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Carpenter, James Michael
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
James M. Carpenter has been curator of Hymenoptera from 1992 to the present. The primary focus of his research is the systematics of the wasp family Vespidae. The long-term goal is a phylogenetic classification, based on cladistic analysis, of the entire group worldwide to the level of genus. The Vespidae are a large and important group (nearly 5000 described species), of particular interest because it contains one of the major radiations of eusocial insects. He has produced the first rigorous studies of the phylogeny of social wasps, and so his papers have been of particular interest to behaviorists and evolutionary biologists working with social insects. His research has been supported by field work and museum visits around the world, and he has received numerous major grants from the National Science Foundation and other agencies. In addition, he has published studies on the higher level phylogeny of Hymenoptera and of Hexapoda. Aside from the empirical research, he has published a number of widely cited papers on cladistic theory and methods.