Dear Respected Community,

My name is David Cheng, and I am currently working on my PhD dissertation focused on reconstructing the family-level phylogeny of Psychidae (bagworms) at the Department of Entomology, University of Florida. 

At present, we have a preliminary analysis that includes 20 psychid species (mostly from the Americas), spanning four subfamilies: Oiketicinae, Psychinae, Narycinae, and Taleporiinae. Given the remarkable diversity of the family, it is essential to increase sampling to establish a comprehensive and robust phylogenetic framework. As part of our efforts, we are also conducting genomic analyses, which require high-quality total genomic DNA. For this reason, fresh or well-preserved specimens are particularly valuable.

I am reaching out to experts and observers in the community to kindly contribute to this project by sending Psychidae specimens from all over the world! We are happy to cover the delivery costs to facilitate this collaboration. Your contributions would be greatly appreciated and would play a vital role in advancing our understanding of Psychidae phylogeny. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions and share this post to anyone who might be interested in.

Thank you for your interest and I look forward to hearings from you!

Sincerely,

David Cheng