Revision of New World Platydracus (Coleoptera:Staphylinidae)

隐翅虫科的甲虫是已知的最多样化的昆虫家族之一。在葡萄科动物中，扁形虫属的成员是大型和显眼的捕食者，捕食苍蝇幼虫和各种森林栖息的无脊椎动物。因此，它们在热带森林的生态中扮演着重要的角色。阿尔弗雷德·牛顿博士建议完成该属新大陆代表的分类专著，包括对70个新种的描述和识别检索表的制作。进化关系将用分支分析重建，物种的地理分布将与它们的进化亲缘关系进行比较。拟议的专著将在森林生态学家、系统和经济昆虫学家、生物地理学家和进化生物学家中找到广泛和强烈感兴趣的受众。具体地说，生态学家将利用这本专著作为他们研究群落结构的识别指南；昆虫学家可能想要探索该属内可能的自然控制机制，生物地理学家将把这一群体作为更新世避难所假说的进一步检验，进化生物学家将把这本专著作为研究生态专门化进化的平台。

Beetles of the Family Staphylinidae comprise one of the most diverse insect families known. Among the staphylinids, members of the genus Platydracus are large and conspicuous predators on fly larvae and a variety of forest-dwelling invertebrates. As such, they play an important role in the ecology of tropical forests. Dr. Alfred Newton proposes completion of a taxonomic monograph of the New World representatives of the genus, including description of 70 new species and production of an identification key. Evolutionary relationships will be reconstructed using cladistic analysis, and the geographic distribution of species will be compared to their evolutionary relatedness. The proposed monograph will find a wide and keenly interested audience among forest ecologists, systematic and economic entomologists, biogeographers, and evolutionary biologists. Specifically, ecologists will use the monograph as an identification guide in their studies of community structure; entomologists may want to pursue possible natural control mechanisms within the genus, biogeographers will use the group as a further test of the Pleistocene refugium hypothesis, and evolutionary biologists will use the monograph as a platform on which to study the evolution of ecological specializations.