My research interests are in insect systematics, taxonomy, morphology, phylogenetics, biogeography, and conservation biology. Most of my work has been in Hawaiʻi, where I also worked for USGS-BRD and the NPS I&M program.

Currently I am working on several projects on Hawaiian Drosophila with Dr. Patrick O'Grady. These include a compilation of all larval rearing records for Hawaiian drosophilids, a revision of the nudidrosophila group, and a new classification for the modified mouthparts group. The extraordinary diversity of the Hawaiian Drosophilidae is fertile ground for many areas of research, and there is a great deal to be discovered about them. Dozens, if not hundreds, of species lie in collections but remain undescribed, while trips attempting to recollect some of these sometimes-enigmatic species often obtain more new species instead.

My dissertation work with Dr. Bryan Danforth at Cornell University was on the Hawaiian Hylaeus (Nesoprosopis) bees, a poorly-known group that represent the only bees native to Hawaiʻi. The results of my study (Magnacca & Danforth 2006, in press) showed that despite the large size of the clade (60 species) and high diversity in mitochondrial DNA, they probably arrived in the islands after the emergence of the island of Hawaiʻi, less than 700,000 years ago. This suggests that 1) they have diversified at an extremely high rate, significantly higher than that of the Laupala crickets, and 2) they probably have not been present long enough have a significant effect on the evolution of native plants. I also found their genetics to be unusual; working out the combination of extremely low nuclear DNA divergence, coupled with anomalously high mtDNA divergence (including heteroplasmy within individuals in about 20% of species), would be an interesting research topic. Patrick Aldrich, a grad student at the University of Hawaiʻi is currently looking at the role the Hylaeus play in pollination of native plants. Bibliography Books Daly, H.V., and K.N. Magnacca. 2003. Insects of Hawaii vol. 17. Hawaiian Hylaeus (Nesoprosopis) Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. 234 pp. Journal Articles Magnacca, K.N., and B.N. Danforth. 2006. Evolution and biogeography of native Hawaiian Hylaeus bees (Hymenoptera: Colletidae). Cladistics 22(5):393–411. Magnacca, K.N., and B.N. Danforth. in press. Low nuclear DNA variation supports a recent origin of Hawaiian Hylaeus bees (Hymenoptera: Colletidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Magnacca, K.N. in press. Conservation status of the endemic bees of Hawaii, Hylaeus (Nesoprosopis) (Hymenoptera: Colletidae). Pacific Science. Magnacca, K.N., D. Foote, and P.M. O’Grady. in press. Breeding ecology of the endemic Hawaiian Drosophilidae. Pacific Science. Magnacca, K.N., and P.M. O’Grady. in press. A subgroup structure for the modified mouthparts species group of Hawaiian Drosophila. Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society. Magnacca, K.N. in press. New records of Hylaeus (Nesoprosopis) and other bees in Hawaii. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey.